While the woman waits, the shoe repairman turns her shoe onto his stand and works diligently to repair it. Almost every day of the year, regardless of the weather, he can be found on the sidewalk near the park. He carries his machine and tools back and forth each day to the spot under the trees.
On this day, the Chinese woman informs him that a foreign woman is taking his photo. He smiles, continues his work and tells her it is no problem because the foreign woman is his friend. I live near his sidewalk shop and pass by on a daily basis. I don't know his name, but I smile, talk to him, and acknowledge his worth as a human being. I think that most people walk by him and don't even notice he is there. Some treat him as if he were less worthy to stand on the planet than they themselves are. He's one of those people on the periphery, the kind of person that we block out of our minds unless we need them to do something for us, like fix our broken shoes. There are others like him in my neighborhood, considered poor on the socio-economic scale of things. The trash collectors, the egg seller, the fish vendor and the guards all come to mind.
There was a time when I probably wouldn't have noticed the shoe repairman either. But these days I make a conscious effort to acknowledge every person I meet, with a goal of making each one feel better about themselves than they did before I crossed their paths. I think that's how Jesus would treat them. They are created in the image of the God who made them.
I'm reminded of the Chinese ceramic bowl that was purchased at auction last week for 2.2 million dollars. The most recent owner had found the bowl at a garage sale for $3. For a thousand years, the owners had failed to realize the value of the item in their midst. The very thing that was tossed aside and treated as junk turned out to be superbly rare and expensive.
It's like that with people. We tend to undervalue the very ones who are priceless.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/19/us-art-chinesebowl-idUSBRE92I17H20130319
1 comment:
I love this post and so very true. I also try to acknowledge, smile at others as I go about my day.
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