I absolutely love those moments when I'm doing a Connecting Memphis interview with a complete stranger and somewhere in the middle of the conversation, we find our common ground. That happened again today. I was walking in the Spottswood / Carnes / Boston St. / Baltimore St. area (just south of Southern), when I ran across a young woman who was standing in her doorway watching her children play. She invited me up to the porch and we sat and talked for a long time. We had so much in common that it made us both laugh out loud. Not only were many of our experiences similar, but our reactions were as well. For instance, we both have a strong streak of independence and it took both of us many years to learn that it's okay to ask for help when we need it. I loved having that time with her, even if we never run across each other again. My favorite author, Anne Lamott, puts it this way: “When you tell the truth and somebody says ‘Me too’, then you know you’re home.” That's what it felt like today. I don't know when in the history of humankind that we ever got the idea that skin color or where somebody happens to live or how much money they have makes us so different from one another. It doesn't. Every single person is made in the image of God and is valuable beyond description. Period. End of story.
The "Love" sign above, hand-lettered by artist Frank Robinson, was photographed at Caritas Village, 2509 Harvard.
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