I recently pulled into a pay and display car park, it was a busy day, the car park was fairly full and there was a long queue for the pay and display machine. My daughter rang me while I was standing in the queue and I started the process of obtaining my ticket, conscious of the line of people behind me. In fairness I was distracted by the telephone call and started frantically reading the board while on the phone. Things were a bit more complicated, because my wife has a blue badge and I needed to check what rules apply there, and I’m a Yorkshireman, so didn’t want to spend any more money than I needed to. I then noticed that I didn’t enough to change to pay by cash and would have to use my debit card, still aware of the queue behind me and distracted by my telephone call, I could feel my stress levels rising to fever pitch.
I am normally quite technically savvy, but for some reason, my brain went to mush, and I was completely flummoxed, I politely curtailed my phone call and looked helplessly at the machine, I hadn’t a clue what to do next. I felt so stupid as I looked at the queue behind me, I was delighted to see a teenage lad and presumably his girlfriend directly behind me “I need a young person to help me please” I asked helplessly. The young lad calmly stood next to me and talked me through the process, as though he were helping his grandad to understand some complex technical problem and seconds later, the fee was paid, and the ticket issued. I thanked my assistant and his partner, who smiled so sweetly, obviously delighted to have been able to help an old man out, and I walked back to the car satisfied that I hadn’t held people up too long.
I’m in the process of completing the mandatory Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion training required by the Methodist Church and my experience in the car park that day was a reminder for me about how easy it is to judge other people and get it so wrong. I am guilty at times of judging young people in less than complimentary ways, saying things like “did we stop teaching good manners to young people?” as a teenager, hood up, wearing headphones or talking at the top of their voice walks directly in front of me causing me to have to move out of their way, or diving far too close to the back of my car. I am reminded how easy it is to make sweeping generalisations about groups of people. It was a huge relief that this young lad came to my need.
Equally, the young couple might also have jumped to the wrong conclusion about me. Time and again I use pay and display machines, those that you have to key in your registration number, then as if by magic the make and model appears on the screen, I am used to paying by card, although I have never got around to using my mobile phone to pay, although I guess that one day I will have to get around to it. Maybe this young couple, forty plus year younger than I, labelled me as a doddery old man, shocking!
The Bible reminds us of the way Jesus constantly went to people who were “outsiders” and included them into his work and ministry, some named, some anonymous have become famous through their stories in the gospels. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion training is a significant investment of time for busy people, but it is an important reminder that all people regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, educational level, sexual orientation, size or appearance are made in the image of God and brothers and sisters to us all.