You Are Me and I Am You
Yesterday I happened to find myself sitting in a car in the parking lot of a convenience store just outside the tiny hamlet of Clifty in northwestern Arkansas. The deliveryman emerged from the store with a tray of bread that had passed the expiration date for sale. He was a middle-aged white guy--he looked something like Hank Hill of King of the Hill. An older black woman was sitting in her car with her window rolled down. He passed right by her and she asked him if she could have the discarded bread.
He said yes but it was more than that. He didn’t say it like he was doing her a favor or doing it as charity or doing it as his Christian duty. He did it like they were two old friends having a meal together. It was beautiful.
Does this isolated incident in a most isolated part of the world mean anything? If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, is there a sound?
This is not an isolated incident. Similar things happen every day, everywhere. The media chooses not to cover them. Instead they feed us a constant stream of violence, prejudice, and conflict.
If the media covered all the beautiful unifying occurrences that take place all around us, the world would be a very different place.
Email / May 6, 2009