I Believe in Everyday Miracles
Her face filled the screen. In a long, white chef’s coat with her name embroidered on the front and a bright purple bow tied around her hair, she furrowed her eyebrows and looked away from the lens.
“I am relieved, but at the same time, I am so sad for him because he tried so hard and doesn’t deserve to be eliminated,” she said.
We were born this way. Born with an innate and evolutionary need to survive and to win. Born, perhaps more importantly, with a sincere concern for the wellbeing of those around us. At a young age, we continue to feel concern for others even when that person is our competitor.
Somewhere along the way, we grow into a need for success and affirmation of that success that spiritually hinders us. Our empathy loses color in place of a competitiveness that deems “the other” the enemy, the one that warrants punishment, either because they are not like us, or because they threaten some form of what we perceive to be our safety.
The relieved yet sad girl is competing to become Master Chef Junior. She has earned her placement on the show by being among the top 25 chefs in the country. She is now competing with her peers for the title of Master Chef Junior, or the single best young chef in the country. She will tell you all about her fierce yearning for the title and for the opportunities that come with it. However, while she pours ceaseless energy into her recipes and presentations, she offers an extra cup of flour to a neighboring chef if he needs it, she gives a hug to a peer if he needs support, and she cheers for her peer that wins immunity in a cooking challenge, even if that means she herself is still vulnerable to lose.
In any other reality show, adults do not behave this way. We are conditioned to believe that if others do well, we won’t. We are encouraged to group “others” into unfavorable mental schemas so that we can reaffirm our own self-worth and our own superiority.
Tonight, in his prime-time speech from the Oval Office, President Obama urged Americans to not give in to fear. As tonight also marks the first night of Chanukah, I urge anyone reading this to believe in not only small acts of kindness as everyday miracles, but also to advocate to diminish discrimination, hate, and “other”ing in order to lead to potentially large-scale miraculous change. We do not have to create enemies to live fruitful lives.
