Yes, it is next week.

For the misinformed, this is not just a golf buggy but a Pope mobile.

I had the most fascinating encounter at church this past Sunday.  It made no sense but it happened.  I would not believe it myself except that I experienced it in reality.

At mass, I had shared information regarding the Pope's visit to Thailand next week and then afterwards a woman came to me to argue that it was not next week but much later in time.  Huh?  The answer is simple.  Just look at the calendar!  What got me was how insistent and belligerent the woman was about the visit not being next week.  Just impossible!  Or so it was for her.   I did not get it.  What was this about?

Then on the same day, I faced other big and unexpected challenges.  I needed a new phone and so finally bit the bullet, made my choice and bought it.  I used my credit card from back home  which had the unexpected outcome of my being bombarded with email messages from my bank back home, telling me that there were suspicious purchases on my card in Bangkok and as a result my card was stopped for verification. 

What?  Suspicious purchases?  This was not using my card at some shady bar.  Targeting Bangkok?  This is my home and has been for 14 years.  Where else do I use my card when I need to?  Just because I use my card to buy a phone at a major shopping mall, I suddenly come under suspicion of being the victim of criminal activity.  I do get it but what is this really about?

Whether an individual or a huge business, what is at play I will name as profiling and in both cases, due to no fault of my own, I become a victim of others' profiling about what they expect because of who, what and where are involved.  I believe this is a basis of unfair and unwarranted discrimination with resulting actions that accompany it.  Once again, you become a victim because of the views and beliefs held by others which they apply as they choose in their own sense of reality.

It is like the message of this week's photo.  On Sunday, I was so excited to see the Pope mobile ready for next week's visit, just sitting in the grounds of the cathedral.  So I jumped in and got my photo taken.  What was for me the Pope mobile was for someone else on seeing the photo something completely different.  The person's big question absolutely floored me - What were you doing in a golf buggy?   What is one person's Pope mobile is another's golf buggy, and you go from there.