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54% of American Adults Read At Or Less Than a Sixth Grade Level
Why am I bringing this up? It's because if the last election did not turn out the way you hoped it would maybe there is work you have to do.
Failure is only Failure when you get stuck in it and don't work to correct it.
About 20 years ago I was on a plane returning to the US from Europe. Sitting across from me was a woman probably over 80 years old. She was crying softly with her head bowed. The Flight Attendant was being very rude trying to get her to answer some useless question. The woman could not answer she was crying.
I reached over and touched her arm and she picked up her head and wiped her eyes and apologized for her crying. I told her not to worry about it we've all done it! I asked her if she could share with me what had caused this distress. She described the last trip she felt she would ever take, a cruise around the mediterranean for a month. It did not turn out well. Her suite mate for the trip, a friend, started to verbally abuse her and she left the ship 2 weeks early and was now going home early. The flight attendant came over again and I did my best glare at her to get her to retreat and leave me with this woman to do what I could. Thankfully she retreated and I continued.
I asked the woman what she saw and experienced that she was thrilled about and she started talking about all the sites she saw and experienced. It changed her. I also suggested that maybe this was not her "last trip ever"
She looked at me and smiled and we talked for the rest of the trip off and on. She asked for my address and I gave it to her.
As I left the plane a business man sitting near us told me I should be a Social Worker. I looked back at him and said I AM One and what you just saw is our Humanity!
Our Humanity, Our Humanity
Have we all forgotten our humanity and how to reach out to someone no matter who they voted for?? That is what people remember our Humanity not our political beliefs.
The woman on the plane sent me a Christmas card that year with a handwritten note thanking me. She said she was blessed to be sitting across from me.
If we start our conversations with people who are different from us with our humanity what difference can we make? I wonder.
So in the face of great dissapointment and a feeling of failure BUILD BRIDGES my firends BUILD BRIDGES with your humanity!!
Susan
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