Day 118c: The extraordinariness of Empathy … (August 25, 2019)
I made it through Joppa without astounding incident and trudged onward into the days’ rising heat, stopping briefly in a roadside convenience store to drop off a cell phone I had found earlier on the side of the highway, and eventually made it into the outskirts of the town of Towson, where the Arnolia Pub becomes the next good spot to stop for some water. Scott, a local resident sitting with me at the bar, overheard me explaining the nature of my Walk to the bartender on call, and immediately told her to put whatever I wanted for lunch on his tab. And even better than the kind offer of sustenance was the heartwarming conversation we shared together thereafter – one that was quite rich from both sides in both meaning & compassion …
“We all have a chance to do something extraordinary every day. We all have the chance every day to change the world; to make it a place of greater harmony and love; to make it a world where we are kind to each other – a world were we are gentle & decent no matter what class or race or sexual orientation species or religion or what job (or complete lack thereof) we might have – a world where we don’t judge those at the food bank or those begging on the street corner or those living in sidewalk tents – a world where we reach out to help those in need without questioning whether or not they ‘deserve” their particular plight. We each have a crucial journey to make, my friends. We can either ‘circle the wagons’ and care only for ourselves and our own, or we can let love and kindness be our roadmap in every interaction & every encounter … And maybe this is why so many take to pilgrimage; why so many embrace those times on the open road with all the unknown ahead of them; the times when the strangers we met along the way knew only our core – without all those sloppy trappings of income and stays and influence; the times when we lived solely for the purpose of unmediated honesty and selfless love – the stuff from which all true Purpose is born.” ~ inspired by Johnny Corn & Jackie Haze
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