By Courtney Weekley
Dr. Jane Wood presented “Love Thy Neighbor” at Chapel on Nov. 12 via Zoom. She shared a story of her Thanksgiving Day when she came home from college.
That semester Wood took a class called politics of physical appearance. It was a class about gender, race and class. This class opened her eyes that others should be more aware of gender oppression.
President Jane Wood. Photo by Aubrey Bartel.
On Thanksgiving that day Wood came home, she tried to make a change in her family where instead of the women cooking the meal while the men watched television, she proposed everyone should help cook the meal.
Over the years she never forgot that day on Thanksgiving. Wood learned she did not lean that conversation with her mother in love and care.
She asked everyone at Chapel that before you try to make a change for the better you converse with love and care, then ask for change.
Wood later apologized to her mother for not going about this change in the right way, but she then learned another important lesson. Her mother had already forgiven her because she knew she was trying to do the right thing.
Wood said when we seek to transform or make a change, we must do it in love within our hearts. God loves our neighbors and has already forgiven us all, so we must all break bread at the kitchen table and love others with kindness as well.
