The Bridge
Have you ever looked in the eyes of a 4 month old and all of a sudden you get a smile and a laugh. Do you remember how that makes you feel. Let me tell you how I feel on an every day basis being a Pediatrician. I feel every negative thought and feeling leave me. My heart goes from ice cold to such warmth and it is almost as if I can fly and touch the sky.
It is almost like seeing and touching God. That my friends is the bridge between living a negative life and enjoying the freedom of a positive one. We all have to be real and acknowledge that there is ignorance, hatred, racism and misunderstanding.
We have to admit that we are human and vulnerable to these feelings at any time. As we grow and develop from newborns to adults we are given that choice to cross that bridge just like a seed that is planted and grows from 6 feet under to a beautiful redwood that endures for a millennium. Just like any seed or a newborn baby you have to take care and nourish it.
You have that choice on how you want to take care of it or do you just let it die in the darkness and then wallow in self-pity and even blame others when does not grow. In this year we have seen life change like we never thought possible and for many this year has only brought death and tragedy.
With that said we have to ask ourselves how do we live in this “new normal”. How do we even survive this new world.
As we keep in our minds the pain that we felt on May 25th 2020 when the world witnessed a pure act of evil, we must find a way to heal and bridge this great division that is taking us apart. How do we come together not just as a nation but as a community so that both sides can be brought back to their own humanity that is good and pure. What is the road back to that childhood when color, race, or culture did not matter. When we all live in a world of our dreams.
A world that was like a painting where all colors and shades and ideas embraced their diversity and found a way despite their differences to grow into that beautiful tree and shine like beautiful eyes of that smiling 4 month old. A world of equality that leads to justice and liberty for all. We have to remember that with all these changes and “new normal” that some things remain the same. Martin Luther King always said in his speeches that love is “creative,” and that only love is capable of transforming hate into love. Therefore, to change the world, love has to be extended to everyone—even to our enemies.
Shakespeare said “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.” That my friends is the bridge from hate to love, from racism to equality, and just like the Benton Street Bridge that despite it’s barriers that keep us from crossing, it still can take us from North to South. We all have that choice to treat everyone equal and to remember that knowledge and understanding is power and with all our borders and divisions and walls we keep around between us we are all one human race.
We have to acknowledge our dark negative feeling of misunderstandings, ignorance, hatred, and anger in order to move forward not only as a nation.
We have to decide to remember how to love each other again because like Shakespeare said “love is infinite” and you cannot defeat love.