Something in Your Teeth
Imagine for a moment that your are from some remote, primitive village. There isn’t running water or electricity. You know every person in your village very well. You have been raised by or have grown up with them all of them.
One day, a man comes to the village whom you have never seen. He brings his camera and is friendly. He records everything that you and your fellow villagers do. He is extra careful not to make too much sound or interfere too much. For days you follow the visitor around while he records you and your friends.
At dinner time one night, the visitor sets up his screen and plays for the whole village the recordings he has taken over the days. To your amazement you see that he has managed to capture a villager whom you have never seen before. You shout, “Who is that stranger? I have never seen that person before!”
The visitor looks at the screen puzzled. He doesn’t see anyone new.
The girl next to you yells, “I see her too! Who is that girl?”
“Girl?” a boy next to you snaps, “That’s stranger is a boy! I’m looking at him with my own two eyes!”
The village leader starts to get annoyed with all the banter, and walks up to the screen. Clearly he can settle the dispute. Everyone falls silent. No one would dare question him. “Do not be foolish,” he says pointing at the screen, “Look. The stranger is an old man.”
Someone from the back yells, “You idiot, that is you.”
I wrote this story to illustrate something, and it’s not to make fun of the ignorance of primitives. I think many of us bounce around this world with no clue about who we are. Certainly, without technology, I’d never know what the back of my head looks like, but there are other things, more important things, that technology could never tell me about myself.
I have several heroes in my life. In all cases, they have overcome great adversity and have managed to come out on top. They live every day to the fullest and are as shiny as the sun itself. Just by knowing them, I feel like I have been blessed. Their generosity far exceeds my ability to receive. And above all, they help me find good in myself where I hadn’t known it existed before.
A hero is not the man with the camera. A hero is the kid in the back brave enough to yell, “You idiot, that is you.”
Your Team: Security Line
I saw this gem passing through the security line at Phoenix Sky Harbor tonight.
There was a time, I’m told, when people were required to dress up a little for flights. Sadly, I think this is they guy who laments that there are no meals and that the flight attendants are too fat.
I’m sure he misses the “glory” days.
03.22.10Oops. I lost again
My roommate Courtney and I go round-two. Sigh.
