What human moments are you missing this week? What human moments have you rediscovered? . To discover gold — you have to allow all the dirt, rocks, pebbles, the noise — to filter out. Then the pieces that hold true value glimmer and shine bright and clear and obvious as the stars. . I went to Albertson’s last week to pick up some dinner and some groceries. The place looked as you’d expect a supermarket to look in a pandemic. . A palpable tension filled the air. People avoided eye contact. There was not just one, but an entire herd of elephants in the room. . I went to the deli counter to get my fried chicken. The guy came over to help me, asking what I’d like. . Before he could reach the drumstick, I asked him how he was doing, adding “Is it just me... or are things SUPER weird?” . His eyes illuminated like Tom Hanks spotting the ship at the end of Cast Away. . He shared with me what his experience has been like working at a grocery store during shelter in place orders. The tension. The anxiety. But also in some cases the melting away of the pretense we often carry with us. It was weird, he told me, but also had some pleasantly surprising elements. . It was possibly the most honest interaction I’ve had in a while — and with a complete stranger! . We were no longer play acting. We had dropped our roles of “customer” and “service provider.” In that moment we exchanged raw, unfiltered humanity. We didn’t avoid the tension. We named it. And in doing so discovered something that I think we were craving long before Covid-19. Genuine, human interactions. . Whatever happens in the coming weeks, I hope we can truly discover the real humanity living inside of us all. And I pray that when this is over — we hold onto the treasure we discover. (at Oceanside, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-NKsfdjBoL/?igshid=1fj3yi69huk8b
