Hopes

I hope for a future where children and older people are treated with as much respect as a CEO or a President.

Think of this: the way you treat different people as you go about your day. The clerk at the gas station, your kiddos, your friends, a co-worker or supervisor. People who are beautiful, who match, and have cared for lawns. People who are smelly, and overweight, whose children are sticky and tell you that they hate you.

Sometimes, when I am mean to my kids, I imagine myself very old and frail. I think of them caring for me and feeling exhausted. And I wonder if they will yell at me or just not listen or pay attention to me. I think of all the power I have now, over their lives, and I ask God to help me to use the power I have to serve in their development, in their growth, in the spirit of Love.

When I drive to work, I try to see each driver. For a moment I think, “Who are you? Where are you headed?”

I read a book called, “The Body Keep the Score” where a researcher reviewed the nature of trauma, the effects of being harmed or neglected by other people, and one part that really jumped out of the page was the phrase, “Seen and Known.”

Bottom line: People can endure so much if they only experience someone else as seeing and knowing them.

And we all have the chance, the opportunity, to be there for each other in that way. Seeing and Knowing.