Irises

This is a picture of the flower bed outside the living room window of my home in Port Coquitlam. As you can see, Irises dominate the bed. For some years I have enjoyed a magnificent burst of colour as the Irises bloomed in spring. This year there were not that many, and they did not last very long. The reason for this, so I am told, is there are simply too many of them. I will shortly re-locate some to give other plants a chance to grow.

Sometimes life can be like that. Certain voices (cultures, genders etc.) dominate to the exclusion of others. Not only does this prevent other voices from being heard, but eventually the dominate voice becomes dull and limited in what it has to offer. 

I don’t think the answer is to cut out the dominate voice entirely. But, like my Irises, we need to find a way to re-organize things so that many voices can be heard. 

I’d like to offer a question for our reflection – perhaps we can chat about it when we see each other next at coffee hour: How do we ensure that our community is one where a diversity of voices are heard and one voice does not dominate to the exclusion of others?