{"id":7110,"date":"2017-01-31T06:32:44","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T11:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=7110"},"modified":"2017-01-31T06:32:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T11:32:44","slug":"immigration-compassion-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=7110","title":{"rendered":"immigration, compassion, & more…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"d3gytrmj77m-gaelle-marcel\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was a young twenty-something, working somewhere between 50-60 hours per week, in the early years of a career in Human Resources in the hospitality industry. Step one meant mastering the management trainee program, with extensive time spent in each department, familiarizing myself with both the function and people necessary to make things run efficiently.<\/p>\n

One of the friends made during that time was a shy young breakfast cook, named \u201cPepe.\u201d He actually had a longer, fun name to say \u2014 at least 10 syllables (!!) \u2014 but as he\u2019d wink and smile at our attempts to say it properly, with a beautiful Mexican accent, we all agreed that \u201cPepe\u201d worked just fine.<\/p>\n

Pepe stood out to me. Truth is, he was one of the kindest, gentlest men I\u2019ve ever met. He never took things for granted; he worked hard, was punctual, loyal, and always did what he said he would do; he was fully trusted and relied upon. He was also incredibly shy.<\/p>\n

Pepe rarely spoke before being spoken to first. He listened well, but it took many weeks before he\u2019d even look me in the eye. There was just a sweetness in that shyness that was both authentic and endearing.<\/p>\n

Pepe had left the states for sometime in order to be with his family in Mexico. When he returned \u2014 and I deeply respect how hard this must have been for him \u2014 he came to me asking for a place to live. As a young professional, I really had little. But as a legal immigrant, Pepe had even less. \u2028\u2028I had a one bedroom flat on the second floor of a woodworking business, on a median in the middle of the road (yes, you read that correctly).<\/em> Pepe and I worked out an arrangement where for four months, he slept on my couch.<\/p>\n

The situation was that Pepe\u2019s wife was still in Mexico. He came back to the U.S. with an appropriate work visa, hoping to save enough money to return home and provide for his family. While Pepe worked full time as a breakfast cook at my hotel, he also<\/em> worked full time at another hotel as a dinner cook. It was thus not unusual for Pepe to work a minimum of 16 hours per day. In other words, even though we agreed that he could fully use my flat and sleep on that humble sofa, I rarely saw him there. He worked harder and more than anyone I\u2019ve ever known.<\/p>\n

On a rare day, Pepe and I would have an evening off that overlapped. Those days were precious. While his broken English and my even-more-broken Spanish often prompted an immediate chuckle for the other, we communicated well. In fact, our favorite thing to do those nights was read together. Pepe, grateful for a mere roof over his head, bought me a paperback bible. The left side of each page was in English \u2014 the right, in Spanish. Together we read the Bible, attempting to connect at deeper, heartfelt, meaningful levels. It was one of the most fascinating, beautiful seasons of my life.<\/p>\n

I always find myself troubled when the immigration debate heats up. Let\u2019s face it; it has heated up on multiple occasions, but in the current climate of seemingly far too many who are ready to either (1) immediately pounce on the next perceived evil thing Pres. Trump does, or (2) immediately praise the next perceived wonderful thing Pres. Trump does, it\u2019s very difficult to have reasonable dialogue, separating fact from fiction, and discerning where and where not to be concerned.<\/p>\n

I admit: I am uncomfortable with the global rise in terrorism and the significant number of persons who wish to harm Americans and Christians simply because of who they are and what they believe. I would like to find reasonable, compassionate ways to ensure those persons \u2014 who truly are the ones most motivated by evil \u2014 have lesser access to succeed in such heinous activity.<\/p>\n

But I also wish we would never allow our need to screen out the terrorist to extinguish our compassion for the refugee \u2014 our compassion for the tired, poor, and the \u201cleast of these.\u201d<\/p>\n

It helps me, therefore, to think of Pepe. Pepe reminds me of the compassion each of us should have for one another\u2026 and yet, we are so stingy<\/em> with our mercy and grace. Maybe we withhold it from the refugee; maybe we withhold it from those who sincerely desire to keep out the terrorist. The challenge is that too often too many justify withholding it from someone.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wonder where Pepe is now\u2026 how his wife and children are. I have no doubt they are somewhere, thriving\u2026<\/em> following their father\u2019s example\u2026 full of that exceptional, endearing kindness\u2026 and reading wisdom on the couch together.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was a young twenty-something, working somewhere between 50-60 hours per week, in the early years of a career in Human Resources in the hospitality industry. Step one meant mastering the management trainee program, with extensive time spent in each department, familiarizing myself with both the function and people necessary to make things run efficiently. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “immigration, compassion, & more…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[475],"class_list":["post-7110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue","tag-immigration-executive-order"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7110"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7116,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7110\/revisions\/7116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}