"As my daughter and i approached the coffee shop there was a woman sitting on the sidewalk with everything she owned in the world beside her in an assortment of collected bags and i knew we were about to be asked for money and i braced the way i always do when someone with nothing asks me for some of my something and i begin the emotional gymnastics that allow me to say yes or no and feel justified about it and so when we hit that critical distance where someone on a sidewalk makes their request before you have passed them but also so you are close enough to have tasted the atmosphere of their predicament that is when the woman said could either of you help me by buying me a coffee and before i could begin a personal debate over the decision my daughter brightly said yeah i can help you with that and walked ahead of me into the cafe and up to the counter as i followed with the woman close behind and then my daughter turned to clarify the coffees preparation to her liking and my heart was suffused with wonder about where my daughter came from and how she was able to erase all station status distribution of resources and any sense of hierarchy or position or worth and be with this person in such an utterly honoring fashion and i fought back the tears while she asked the woman if she wanted a sticky bun also and the woman's eyes grew wide and she said yes and then the items were paid and passed along and this street resident was fed without the slightest shred of anything being handed up or down or any trace of favor or merit or doing good or having pity or whiff of the nonsense that routinely perpetuates the dance of separation and it struck me what a fucking miracle it is to live long enough for your children to instruct you as a parent in conduct that can restore meaning and rightness and goodness in the world in an instant and it became clear that my daughter had not just given this woman breakfast but a moment of god given equality and original worth which surely by far is immeasurably harder to come by than a cup of coffee." —Rick Lewis

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