5.15.2008

Mentors

Tribal Church wrote about mentors yesterday. She names something about young clergy that I think is true -- and I fall into a very particular camp. I don't want a mentor. I have had them. They were all wonderful but somewhere during my discernment and call, they became peers. I won't call them my mentors. They are Tim and Melanie. I call them as friends as much as I call them to beg "Uh, I haven't a clue here. Help."

This morning, I read The Ones We Love. Kate names her mother as her mentor which is so poignant and powerful. Lovely -- except that I'm a motherless daughter. I hate the liturgical celebration of Mother's Day. It is one of those days that I feel like an outsider. No matter what. I call my wonderful stepmother and can celebrate her -- but I still feel left out because I missed exactly what Kate names in her article in Fidelia's Sisters. I did have my stepmother. She filled this role. But, somehow, it's not the same. I think this may be why I resist mentors.

This is an "AHA!" moment for me. Now, I shall go to work.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, my poor congregation heard nothing on Mother's Day except all the atrocities that were going on in the Sudan. Sorry, visiting moms. :) I ran into a former mentor yesterday who mentioned that she enjoyed an article I had written, and it moved me so much that I did a little hop-skip when I left her office. Then I got sad because I realized people with mothers probably get that kind of feedback all the time. Sigh.

LittleMary said...

super interesting aha moment! i love having mentors, on the other hand. not that they talk down to me, but that i know i can go and ask them things that they know more about cause they have had more time on this earth...and then they get to love all over me in ways i never got that love.