Unexpected goodness

Browsing around this afternoon online at C&T Zone, I enjoyed a few laughs of agreement and solidarity at the posts of some of my friends, Jonny Rice and those collectively known as Midwest Mindset. I won't try to steal their thunder, but definitely check out the latter for opinions on the latest James Dobson fracas.

I also found myself inadvertently and silently babysitting 3 little black kids, two boys and a girl all under 8, who were left with me and Jung, the guy who runs the coffeeshop. Their mother came in and then left them here alone for probably about a half an hour. They inched closer and closer to me, until we were all sitting around one small table. They kept talking to each other, but looked at me, and I would wink back at them. We never said anything to each other, but there was an identification that we were in this together, at least temporarily. Jung looked at stuff on ebay and I looked at blogs and pictures of Auschwitz.

Sometimes just being together with other people, being close and being stared at without anything intrusive, just interest, from the eyes of a child can be the most wonderful thing in the world. In what can seem like the darkest hour, when the opposition on every front seems almost greater than what can be born, there is a peace and a relaxation. And the song that you have been singing all day, in the shower even, comes over the radio and everything is all right.
Send me up to the Spirit in the Sky, that's where I'm gonna go when I die- when I die and they lay me to rest, I'm gonna go to the place that's the best. Fade out over tambourines and electric guitar solo into black.