A young rapper from Harlem...
...a Hispanic family in Galveston...
...a teenage boy in the foothills of California...
...an old man in Fargo...
...these are just a few of the thousands of people who have woven colorful and heartwarming threads through the tapestry of my life and left me richer for it...
...these are the people who have been on the receiving end of assistance from the American Red Cross, while I was on the receiving end of their friendship and their warmth and their love and their humanity...
...total strangers brought together in moments of tragedy...united in our hope and our determination to make things better...
...they had needs...and I had the joy in providing...
...in the case of the rapper, a shelter in an ice storm...
...food and water for the family in Galveston after a hurricane ripped through the island...
...a shovel and sifter for the teenager, so he could sift through the ashes of what used to be his home...
...and an ear for listening, for the old man in the Fargo flooding...
There are so many people...so many stories...that I sometimes fear they will begin to blend in with each other and I will "lose" them...I will lose what made each person special...each situation unique and heartwarming...and I don't want to lose them. They deserve more than that. They deserve their own memories...not all lumped in with each other in the confusion and jumble of my mind...
...and so I write...and I share their stories with audiences...
...and I salute them, for making me a better person than what I deserve to be.
Peace.
1 comment:
What a gift you all are to each other....
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