I don't mean in the blood drive, donate for cancer, run for the cure kind of way.
And I don't mean in the vigilant in public places, turn off your phones on airplanes, teach your kids to dial 911 kind of way.
I mean...
Do you look at strangers and see their humanity? The innumerable things they may be going through, have gone through, or about to go through? How fragile any of them could be at any moment?
Someone once talked about how funny "Baby On Board" bumper stickers on cars are. They pointed out how we should be as careful around grown humans on the road as we are around babies. He said people should get to have stickers.
"Please Be Nice, I Just Lost My Job"
"Sorry I'm Distracted, My Dad Is In The Hospital"
"Give Me A Second, I'm In Recovery"
That kind of thing. He finally landed on the conclusion that we should just live as if we all have invisible bumper stickers, and assume we all need a little extra grace.
I think we have moments of this kind of clarity about each other.
When tragedy hits someone we know or is talked about on the news, we see the pictures of people - celebrities or not - and we can't help but think about the days right before. The people they may have talked to, the many ways things could have gone differently.
Or maybe it's a moment when we ourselves are fragile, and we are cut off on the freeway, treated rudely by someone at Starbucks, or have something stolen from us. And the bottom sinks just a little lower.
Or...
It's also in the briefest, smallest, easiest acts of kindness. When someone lets you ahead in line because they have 27 items and you have 3, doesn't something extremely human stir in your heart?
But it's so much more than that. If so many of us are fragile, broken, weary, devastated, worried... and just so tired... if that is such a common human state, then those brief, small, easy gestures are really lifelines. You have no idea when someone is on the verge, or at rock bottom, or losing hope. You have no idea when simply helping, allowing... for goodness' sake, seeing people... will be the one thing that breaks through and lets light in.
Letting someone through a door before you could be what restores their faith in humanity.
Buying the lady behind you a hot dog at Costco could be a balm to a wound no one can see.
Eye contact, a smile, talking about the weather, asking strangers how their day is... these things will usually be white noise. Usually. But sometimes - and even just sometimes is often enough - these things, all added together, could be enough to rescue each other.
Yes, rescue.
Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash
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