Running through the neighborhoods of condo associations today, I passed few people. Mainly people walking dogs who looked at me skeptically. I don’t dress in chic running clothes. I’ve gained 10 pounds since I could vaguely consider myself athletic. But I was out there, damnit, doing something good for myself. I was in public, doing something that is core to who I am as a human.
Our days are full of the shells of other people. I could easily make it through a day and see only my family and the people at my job. I could easily travel between work and home and believe that there were no human beings around me, just cars in motion and the stale walls of the outsides of buildings. Living that way, I could hate the people. I could go a day and my only “interaction” with people would be flipping off a car/person merging poorly in front of me and grumbling about the condo/person that still has its grungy air conditioner in the window in November.
I could go a whole day hating on the shells of other people.
Imagine that day becomes weeks and months and years. My soul would degrade.
My friend, I do not want my soul to degrade. I do not want yours to. I am sick to the teeth of people with degraded souls pulling guns and killing dozens of people at a time.
We have to get our humanity back. We have to make our humanity public. We have to see each other as people and not as car/people and building/people and blank-faced-meaningless/people. We have to see that the people around us are full and living and holding on to some kind of belief. We are burning with some kind of goodness.
Laugh uproariously with your child in public. Show that joy exists.
Kiss your partner in public. Really kiss them. Show that real, devoted, passionate love can still exist.
Go for a run a few times a week rather than going to the gym. Show the neighbors that you have a physical body and you believe the physical world still matters in this age of technology.
Eat your lunch on a park bench rather than your cubicle at work. Show that you believe in the power of tupperware and home-cooked food.
Take your yoga practice to the local park. Read your book, knit your hat, work your crossword, practice your swordsmanship, care for your snake in some way that people can see it.
Turn your face to the sun, my mother always tells me. Show that our souls are still alive and lit on fire.
What about you? What will you do in public?
This Family is Sacred 