Diary of a Parson’s Wife
Polly Zipperlen looks ahead to an ‘uncomfortable’ Advent
Like many adolescents, believing myself invincible, I discovered the thrill of risk-taking in my teens, mainly involving fast cars and late-night forays into cities with the odd bit of adventure sport thrown in.
I escaped relatively unscathed but had a few close shaves, one memorable occasion in Tijuana, a Mexican border town, where my friends and I spent the night clubbing. But it was while travelling across Arizona towards Lake Havasu in a stranger’s Winnebego and pulling up at an isolated garage, when the driver turned to me and said “what happens at Lake Havasu…stays at Lake Havasu”, that I really thought I might have pushed the boundary.
Having lived to tell the tale, I continue to find an odd sense of pleasure in stepping out of my comfort zone and marvel when people prioritise comfort over novelty. A recent example occurred when I was discussing my new job as a Gender Nurse with a friend, who expounded a common riposte about gender-neutral toilets, condemning unisex facilities as making her feel “uncomfortable”. Now, I find this view bizarre. How does one person’s discomfort take priority over another’s? My gender-diverse friends have the daily conundrum of which loo to use.
Furthermore, and rather amusingly, at what point did society attribute gender to the good old WC? One of my teenage risk-taking forays took me on a lone trip to France where I quickly became acquainted with open-door urinals and ‘squatters’. No thought of gender-specific ablutions here!
The Bible is full of stories where psychological comfort is sacrificed to catalyse spiritual growth and we are called upon to question the status quo without judgement.
I appreciate that this is often easier said than done – I found myself in the uncomfortable position last week of being the oldest clinician amongst a group of nurses. My younger colleagues took me under their wing, from explaining medical technology to extolling the virtues of an after-party ‘Baby Guinness’. Aside from providing me with a good story to tell, this experience has led me to realise that I need to get out of my middle-age comfort zone more.
So for me, Advent will see a re-awakening of my risk-taking credentials. I am not yet sure what shape this will take, but as an all-or-nothing kind of girl, I hear an Atlantic rowing expedition calling.