Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Lower Class

On Sunday James asked me to find a babysitter for Tuesday. He wanted to go and play basketball or volleyball at the church. Well I found one, and a great one at that! Becky Clark is my visiting teaching companion and she and her daughter came over and watched the girls for us. Not only did she watch the girls, but after taking her home I realized that she had done my dishes!!! I was so touched by her thoughtfulness.
So we go to play ball at our stake center with the missionaries, my brother Trevor, a guy from our ward Ritch and his friend. There ends up being some guys from the frenchman hills ward already there that were getting ready to play too. There was a total of 12 of us and so we split up into 3 teams of 4 so we could play half court games. The missionaries are only allowed to play half court, which is fine by me! One of the boys from the Frenchman Hills ward did not want to play with us, you could just tell that he didn't want to. I can't blame him because James was raining 3's on him. He seemed to be the one that had planned for everyone to come and play.
To understand a little background on the Frenchman Hills ward they are a more wealthier ward than ours. They live up on the hill close to the temple and the rest of us don't. There are two wards that meet in the stake center. One is the Frenchman Hills and the other is Beverly Glen. Both of these wards youth seem to think that they are Upper Class while the other 4 or 5 wards that are in the stake are all lower class. They don't like to mix and mingle with our youth and they sometimes make it so obvious that our youth don't care for them at all. Most of the parents aren't this way, but no matter where you go there are always some sour grapes that think they should be different and make it known that they are different as if different is better.
There ended up being 2 more people that showed up and so after they finished the game they were in this one boy starts calling people to come play at the other end of the court and leaves us 6 to play where we were. We didn't care, we were there to play. James made a comment about segregation, and we all (the 6) laughed about it. One of the guys that had come late was sitting next to me and asked what was going on since his name was called to play at the other end. I told him that his friend thought he was better than us and so he didn't want to play with us. He looked confused like what's so wrong with playing together.
After we finished playing James was a little disturbed by the whole situation still. He couldn't understand how he thought he was better and how within our stake there was such a feeling of upper and lower class.
We took a walk around the block to finish off our night because it was nice outside. As we walked around the block and saw all the big houses (that were really nice looking) he made the comment that even if we could afford to live in a neighborhood like this that he doesn't know if he would want to because he wouldn't want to be in a ward were people thought they were better than others. I told him that there just aren't enough down to earth people in those wards to help everyone realize that.
All in all if I am lower class to that kid I sure am glad that I am! I'm glad that I don't look down on others, that I don't think myself better than another and that I don't think I am too good for you. I hope he has a rude awakening and realizes one day that God is no respecter of persons. That to God we are the same, and when the time comes to live the law of consecration no one is better off than the other.

7 comments:

The Lyons' said...

I don't think they read their scriptures, because IF they did, they would see what happened the Nephites when they started lifting themselves above the other people. So sad...

gudielgirl said...

Oh my goodness, I just love this post! When i first started going to church i found it so hard to socialize with people because i feel like the people in our steak are just flat out stuck up holier than thou people. Not all of them of course but mostly A lot of the youth. it was so hard for me until my best friend made it better and that's how she became my best friend. I don't think that people understand that converts need a friend and also that when it comes to heavenly father he doesn't see classes.... and no matter how much money they make it wont matter when we return to him. it still makes me really angry, and i hate their dumb little cliques, but i hope that for the sake of the church, these people get better because they are the reason people leave our church. this subject has hurt me so much, i've cried over it. No one person is better than another and people need to get slapped with some sense.

Theodora Salanoa said...

Lets just keep it simple. Invite a Samoan ward to play when they are there and see how stuck up they want to act then... Can I just come to Vegas and Slap them. I HATE judgmental people.

James and Cindy said...

Yeah, James was saying lets see how he feels when we get a team together and come up here and see who is better than who. But I think its super sad that they don't understand judge not that ye be not judged. One day hopefully it will hit him, good thing I don't care what he thinks :)

AGamble said...

That's pretty dumb. They don't even know where you live. I think you guys have a nice house in a decent neighborhood. (Your street is a lot cleaner than ours, and we live closer to the temple, so living closer doesn't mean anything about the neighborhood or wealth.) Perhaps he just didn't want to hang out with other people. I still think that is rude though. You're all members of the same church there doesn't seem to be any reason you can't all play ball together.

Monty and Kristin said...

Funny story! Glad you got a night out and have found a great person to watch your kids. We are still looking for one that doesn't charge $3 an hour per kid! We are too LOW CLASS for that!:) Glad you are down to earth!

The Wallster said...

Well, I know a lot of the youth in the BG and FH wards and that's not the impression I get. If they seem other than how you'd like them to seem, consider that they might be used to a certain culture and certain attitudes toward things that are holy, and may not know how to respond to cultures and attitudes that are unfamiliar or confusing. Not that they are right, but who is right? And can being judgmental find itself into a post about someone else's judgmental qualities?