I had cataract surgery recently and it didn’t go as planned. The follow up treatments were painful and took forever and although my right eye is really good, my left eye will never have 20/20 vision due to optic nerve damage. But don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled with my vision because being blind would be so difficult. And yet there are times when I am, unfortunately, totally blind.
My wife’s Charity, called “Project Foster”, finally moved out of our garage and into a real office building in San Juan Capistrano. For weeks now we have been erecting shelving, organizing the office, and moving hundreds of bins of clothing and hygiene products for children into the building. We are close to being done and last week I loaded the last stack of cardboard into my truck and drove it over to the nearby dumpster.
When I pulled around the corner, the large steel door to the dumpster area was already open. It was open because there was someone in there pulling out aluminum cans. She was a tiny little thing, less than 5’ tall, and totally bundled up in a heavy old coat with a tattered scarf over her head. All I could really see were her big brown eyes. She wasn’t young by any means, and yet I bet a hard life had added years to her that she probably didn’t deserve.
In my broken Spanish, I said, “Disculpeme un momento” (excuse me for a moment). She didn’t utter a word, just backed out and stood to the side with her head down. I didn’t want to make things any harder for her, so I flattened out the boxes and shoved them to the very back of the dumpster, which I figured was a good thing to do. Then I drove away, which was a bad thing to do.
As soon as I got on the freeway, I thought to myself, “You are such a jerk!” I could have easily handed that little old lady a $20 bill and I’m sure it would have made her day. Why didn’t I think of that… or why didn’t I at least make the effort to say something to her, to truly look at her, look into those sad brown eyes and say something nice. There was so much I could have done, so much to see right in front of me, but I was blind.
Yes, I looked at her. But in reality, I looked right through her because my mind was on other things. It would have only taken a moment, just a moment, to show kindness. It won’t happen again, and you know why? Because I am going to remember that there is something amazing about taking the time to truly “see” a person.
You know
who could use some kindness right now? Probably everyone.
~ Dr. Sun Wolf
