Compassion

Sometimes we grow up in a culture with mixed messages, most of them pretty convincing. Eventually it becomes necessary to sort them out, make some sense out of it all.

What a conundrum that can be! The people we are supposed to trust the most, the ones we love unconditionally, are held up to the light and it looks like a stained glass window whose symbolism appears to be obvious to everyone but us. The inner turmoil can be unbelievable, because it usually only shows up in times of crisis when everything is already chaotic and crazy.

In walks a perfect stranger, a man you might not think of turning to for an opinion. He is simply who he is. Hold him up to the light and nothing changes. Listen to the wind blowing through his cracks and nothing changes. Watch the rain drum against his heart and nothing changes. Turn on yourself and have a small tantrum, and nothing changes. What a gift this person is!

Sanity personified. Goodness exemplified. Compassion at its best. Open and honest. Simple and good and all the other adjectives that come to mind when looking into the light and seeing that the backlit person has a face and a name, a heart and all the other things we all look for.

More importantly, he is everything I am looking for and he calls me friend. There is no higher accolade than this.