My husband and I were driving last weekend to go put flowers on my grandfather's gravesite, It's in the older part of Rosemead with a mixed population of Asians, Hispanics and a low percentage of Caucasian and African American. I haven't had a real thought growing up regarding race, but as I got older, race plays a factor in people's lives whether we think about it or not. This day, it didn't.
We normally judge kids or teenagers that have turned around baseball caps, pants hanging low, gold chains around their necks with a tag of thug, maybe gangster, maybe white trash, druggie...we've watched enough movies to distinctly tell them apart and for some it is a realistic description, but not this day.
We finished putting the flowers on the grave and started off for home. Not a lot of people driving that morning so there were two cars, ours and theirs. The car was a lowered beat up Honda with two boys inside...I'll call them boys because they weren't in their 20's and being in my 40's, I feel like anyone younger than 20 still a kid.
I looked to one side of the street and a little old Asian grandma-type just started crossing and our light was green so we could turn if we wanted to. She was going at a snails pace so you can only imagine how slow that was. She looked to be about in her 80's, full gray head of hair, a little hunch in her back from years of living, covering her eyes from the hot sun and a gimp in her step needing the aid of the cane to help her walk. That's when I saw the other corner with the two boys blasting their music in their beat up Honda. Two Caucasian kids that stood out like a sore thumb in a city filled with little old Asian ladies, stopped their car at the corner and the kid in the passenger seat got out, pulled up his lowriding pants and put his hat forward. He ran to where the little old lady was crossing the street, offered his arm for her to lean on and he slowly walked with her to the other side.
I haven't been surprised by a human deed like that in my lifetime. I've read about it, I've watched it in the movies but to actually witness it brought a tear to my eyes and made me clap out loud.
I do think we are judged, not by God but by people by the deeds that we do in this life...now I see there is hope by witnessing a 3 second act of kindness as I watched in my rearview mirror with a smile on my face.
We normally judge kids or teenagers that have turned around baseball caps, pants hanging low, gold chains around their necks with a tag of thug, maybe gangster, maybe white trash, druggie...we've watched enough movies to distinctly tell them apart and for some it is a realistic description, but not this day.
We finished putting the flowers on the grave and started off for home. Not a lot of people driving that morning so there were two cars, ours and theirs. The car was a lowered beat up Honda with two boys inside...I'll call them boys because they weren't in their 20's and being in my 40's, I feel like anyone younger than 20 still a kid.
I looked to one side of the street and a little old Asian grandma-type just started crossing and our light was green so we could turn if we wanted to. She was going at a snails pace so you can only imagine how slow that was. She looked to be about in her 80's, full gray head of hair, a little hunch in her back from years of living, covering her eyes from the hot sun and a gimp in her step needing the aid of the cane to help her walk. That's when I saw the other corner with the two boys blasting their music in their beat up Honda. Two Caucasian kids that stood out like a sore thumb in a city filled with little old Asian ladies, stopped their car at the corner and the kid in the passenger seat got out, pulled up his lowriding pants and put his hat forward. He ran to where the little old lady was crossing the street, offered his arm for her to lean on and he slowly walked with her to the other side.
I haven't been surprised by a human deed like that in my lifetime. I've read about it, I've watched it in the movies but to actually witness it brought a tear to my eyes and made me clap out loud.
I do think we are judged, not by God but by people by the deeds that we do in this life...now I see there is hope by witnessing a 3 second act of kindness as I watched in my rearview mirror with a smile on my face.
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