Hard times in the iris patch... but life goes on...
One
of the advantages of living through extraordinary times, are
the landmark moments which will stick with you the rest of your life.
They might be hilarious or tragic, but they will occupy a permanent
corner of your brain for the rest of your life, and each will become
a self-defining tile in your life's mosaic. The way I remember the
ass-kicking I took in the boys bathroom in fourth grade.
Half a dozen boys, crushed
at the news just announced, did not take my sarcasm very well. All I
had said was, “My parents are Republicans... we didn't vote for him
anyway.”
That's right, President
Kennedy had just been murdered in Dallas with thousands of Texans
looking on. And these fourth graders wanted to hurt somebody. And I
had been terribly naive about freedom of speech. If I had not done
some fast talking, they would have surely beat me until “you are
just a grease spot in the concrete.”
So one of my first “life
lessons” was to not indulge in political grudges during a national
crisis.
How we react, how we treat
one another during these extraordinary times, the things we do with
each other, will live much longer than the virus. None of us will
probably know a single person who will perish from the disease, but
plenty of us will experience either smallness or magnanimity in our
own neighborhoods, as we all cope and watch others cope with a
historic, worldwide calamity.
Standing in line, keeping
our distance, shopping for “our brand” along stripped store
shelves, listening to strangers tell of their troubles... bustling
among masked strangers who just want to go home as soon as they can.
This is your opportunity to be a “good Samaritan.” This is your
test.
It's not a free-for-all
until things get back to normal, and you can return to your kind
self. This is your test. It does not matter how you treat people when
everything is great. It matters what you do “when the chips are
down.” This is your self-defining moment. You will never forget how
you reacted... what you said in jest, or in meanness, or what you may
have done in a moment of mercy. They will all be there to revisit,
your instinctive actions to remind you for the rest of your life...
that there are times when the only thing to do is to be gracious,
charitable, even sacrificial, giving as Jesus commanded, the cloak
off of your back.
This noble aspiration,
this broad view of neighborliness, is what defines the character of
the best of America, and ingrained in many Texans. We will learn
once again what it means to suffer and endure as a country, and learn
that we, our fellow citizens, are our best resource. Black, white,
Republican, Democrat, Skinhead, Socialist, innie our outie, we are
all countrymen... and we share much more in common than we differ in
philosophies.
I truly believe it will
be, for many of us who never faced WWII, or who grew up admiring (and
paling in comparison to) the “Greatest Generation,” our own
“proudest moment.”
