I was driving in this morning listening to the song For Good from the Wicked soundtrack. I started thinking about all the people who have made such a huge difference in my life and of course, there are the usual family, husband, etc, but then I started thinking about my children, and it's true that I'm who I am today because of them and that led me to a recent experience that affected me more than I realized.
On the way home on Sunday from New York, I sat next to a man (Gary) with a little boy (not quite 2) named KC. He had been to visit relatives with KC while his wife stayed home with their baby daughter. The little boy looked so much my son at that age that I became immediately enamored and started talking to him and treating him like I did my son. Gary was trying to get settled, so I put KC on my lap and showed him the pictures on my digital camera. When Gary put the movie on the DVD player, KC cuddled in my lap and watched Thomas the Tank Engine - just like Teebo used to. I lost it and tears rolled down my face for like 15 minutes. At the end of the flight when Gary was trying to gather everything up, I had Kace back on my lap looking at the baggage trucks out the window. Gary said he was stunned - that KC didn't go to anybody except his parents.
I will probably never see Gary or KC again, but in some strange way, I belive that they came into my life to teach me a lesson about simple acts of kindness and help me grow and I think I taught them something in return about the simple goodness of the human soul.
So while I listened to the song this morning, I cried and felt loved and full and warm and not quite so despairing of the human race.
While no good deed ever goes unpunished and any act of charity will be resented by someone, do it anyway. Show the world that we are still out there - doing good in small ways and always, always taking care of those that are our future.
All that negative, politically correct shit - I'm OVER IT! I'm 40. I'll do what I want. Don't talk to me. | 