I am immersed in a commissioned quilt. It will have six hundred pieces when the last thread is cut, and the beauty of each color is enhanced by the ones next to it.  It is nice to have the background chatter of a familiar show, familiar enough that I can keep my eyes on the needle. 

 

An episode of West Wing that is among my favorites played on the screen. President Bartlet instructs his chief of staff to hire Ainsley Hayes, who happens to be a Republican. The outcry of his staff is enough to rattle the windows. They are Democrats, and the prospect of being friendly, even civil, to Ainsley tests their limits. The events make me laugh, even with having watched it multiple times. There is the disagreement about whether a song about duty comes from Pinafore or Pirates of Penzance. The question strikes close to home, not that the President's staff gets to actually go home much, because they too are fiercely committed to serving their country. Both parties, although they employ different styles. 

 

I love that Jed is willing to employ someone who disagrees with him as White House Counsel. He seems cognizant of the fact that a single word can never adequately encompass a person's worth, or lack of it. We are like a quilt of overlapping circles and colors. 

 

The story resonates for me because I ache to be more inclusive. If I am honest, there have been a litter of instances behind me in which I tried to compress a person's entire value into a single word. Whether an attribute, or a physical component, gender, race, diagnosis, profession, political party, verdict, or misstep I am guilty of closing the case on people.  

 

I find that God does not fit within the confines of a single name. Messiah, Father of Eternity, Comforter, Dayspring, Redeemer, and Lion of Judah are but a few of the pieces within the Creator of the Universe. How much more beautiful it is to welcome the whole spectrum.