Article July 6, 2009 Issue

THE LESSON OF THE 2STROGANOFFS

A spiritual angle on both unity and diversity

BY STEPHANIE JOHNSON

When I was growing up, two members of my extended family made beef stroganoff regularly. One made her dish very spicy, while the other's would have been considered bland. Yet, I loved both dishes. It never even occurred to me to compare the two. While the names of the dishes were the same, the variation in their preparation was all good, in my childhood world.

Fast forward to many years later. Newly married, my husband and I had moved from the region where I'd grown up to another part of the United States. I was startled to find that very little felt familiar. Everything in the day-to-day round seemed completely different—the climate, housing, food, clothing, even the attitudes of those I met. Instead of feeling like I was having a thrilling adventure, I felt very isolated and unsettled in this new area.

But as a student of Christian Science, I knew that I didn't have to feel like a stranger in a strange land, nor was it OK for me to see those around me as out of step. So each time I left the house, I agreed to allow the Apostle Paul's daring statement about the prejudices of his day to correct my perspective: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). To Paul's list I humbly included the name of the region of the country I came from and that of my new residence.