I have a cousin who is rather famous in the family for his Redbirds and Bluebirds philosophy. He teaches his grandchildren that the Redbirds don’t mate with the Bluebirds and that’s the way it should be. The races shouldn’t mix to the point of marrying, though having a minority garbage man or housekeeper is likely OK.

He’s a racist. He’s wrong. He happens to live and work in a part of the U.S. where whites are probably a minority, and where negroes are mostly likely to be socially and economically in the lower class.  He was raised with prejudice in the Missouri Ozarks, carried it with him through his military years, and maintains it today after some 70 years of living.

What’s this got to do with London? Everything! I was riding along on the subway just looking at people. Wow! There were a lot of colors, and shapes, and looks. You want Asians? London’s got them. Indians? Oh yeah, by the truck load. (That’s the type with a red mark on their forehead, not Tonto.) Blacks. Lots of ‘em. Mediterranean looking folks? Yep! Middle eastern? Many. And there are even white folks like me. Then there are what we farmers would call “crossbreds” of every sort. It was kind of fun to just look at the pallet of color and style that God had to work with.

It occurred to me as I observed this that my cousin’s philosophy wouldn’t work in London. Oh, if you wanted to be sure you only married someone from your racial gene pool you could do it; the pool is large enough. But I saw, interacted with, and observed many attractive, engaged, intelligent, vivacious people of every color and I’m figuring that if you wanted to be sure your grandkids only married your “type” that you’d be eliminating some great candidates and there’s a likely chance that at some point your kids or grandkids are going to bring home someone whose gene profile doesn’t match yours.

It’s a big world out there. God has created a lot of interesting people. I’m naturally more attracted to some than others, and find myself more at home in some cultures than others. But we in the Ozarks where I live need to get our mind finally and fully around the fact that God created them all, they are equal. There’s no need for separate. It’s wrong.

I pray often for the men my girls will bring home. I pray they’ll be Godly. I don’t ever pray they’ll be white. Good thing. Granting that request in London might be a bit of a challenge.