The manager of a Dollar Store near me has been there for at least the last five years. Every time I’ve come in he has been manning the register. I’ve watched him treat each customer with warmth and consideration, as if he or she counted for something more, not as a customer but as a human being. There is an almost evanescent qualitative line between being merely polite and however one might describe his presence. He is the opposite of unctuous. He seeks nothing extra from his customers. He is neither garrulous nor overly friendly. He has found some perfect ground that comprises integrity and authenticity.
When I become very angry at the most recent crime or tragedy perpetrated by the Abomination, or so thoroughly discouraged by the facts surrounding the Epstein Elites, I sometimes think of him and then of anyone who shows actual consideration toward strangers, or who, like the ordinary people of Minneapolis and so many others all over the country, put their bodies on the street to give protection to neighbors and strangers and ask nothing in return. It reminds me that there are millions upon millions who do not believe that every relationship with a person must be transactional or must be governed by commerce or Darwinian stakes. Such conduct might serve as another definition of grace, a daily, or if we’re fortunate, even hourly one, that can help to keep our cynicism and despair at bay. Maybe if we keep ourselves open, ready to be surprised by goodness, we can add a little more resilience to our moral power of resistance during this dark time.
