On inextricability and seeing Asheville with new eyes.

Interviews have continued to arrive in a trickle, though I have at this point interviewed multiple people from both groups. However, I have yet to interview a woman in either group, and I will be attempting to change that in the future.

Wesserkins is visiting me this week. I was in Charlotte over the weekend to see my parents and go to the Bon Odori Japanese festival, and he needed a ride home. When I mentioned that there was a QUILTBAG-themed open mic Sunday evening (Literature Generated By The Queers In Asheville), he seemed really interested, and so (after he got permission from his parents, obviously) he came with me back to Asheville.

It's interesting watching him react to Asheville, to things like the existence of vegan drive-thrus and the existence of a church (First Congregational United Church of Christ, which is a very liberal church that has a large number of gay members) in which he felt comfortable (despite being a gay man and an atheist). It makes me wonder if I am too cynical, or if the differences between us (age, sexual orientation, religion, home-location, and ethnicity) explain most of the difference in our reaction. Perhaps I'm just forgetting how exciting Asheville seemed when I first arrived and experienced it. It's certainly different from any other place I've been in a lot of wonderful ways.

I also talked to an associate pastor at New Life Community Church in Asheville. I'm finding it's becoming more easy to talk to people about my project honestly while leaving out the other half, and I think it's partly because both parts of the project are important to me individually as well. Hearing people's testimonies is not just about the research project but is a way for me to better understand my own faith, to address doubts and questions I have and demonstrate how other people experience God or the Holy Spirit (or however they describe it) working. And I shared that with the associate pastor, and it's completely true. He suggested a book, "I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus", which discusses evangelical Christian testimonies from a sociological rather than narrative perspective, and also a series of sermons.
I do not know if it's because of the specific communities I'm studying or a general property of human sociology, but it continues to strike me that while I'm studying communities they study me back, and move to welcome me.