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I sat in the dentist office waiting for my 6-month cleaning and glanced at a print on the wall across from me. It was a cowboy and two horses on a trail in wooded rocky terrain. My first thought was that I didn’t realize my dentist, who I’ve gone to for years, was a fan of the great west. My attention wandered then to the magazine rack just to the right and I marveled at how few of the people on the covers were recognizable to me.
Why is it we focus on how we are different from each other? I pondered this question driving home from my annual Weekend Yoga Retreat. If you pause and consider you will realize just how often someone’s differences are pointed out in the news, in a group conversation, and in advertising. Everyone seems to focus on why and how we are not alike.
It was already hot and humid at nine a.m. on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Despite the steamy weather, a group of us gathered on the sidewalk outside of First Baptist Church of Herndon to cheer and clap. We stood waiting, not so patiently, and then it came.
“People, people who need people, are the luckiest people in the world.” Could you hear Barbra Streisand’s voice as you read that line? She sang it in the movie Funny Girl back in 1968. Ancient history! It became her signature song.
We Christians must be a pretty smart bunch, because I read daily in the news where we are telling everyone how to live their lives. In fact, we are so smart we legislate how people should live their lives. Or said in another way, we force people to live the way we “know” they should. At this point you are either intrigued or insulted.
I’d like to think people want to be kind. There is some effort involved. The adjective “kind” means sympathetic, gentle, and benevolent. I think of it as selfless. A kind person puts the feelings and wellbeing of others before their own. You can be kind in your actions and/or your words.
