On the way to work

A man pushes a young boy on a bike. A mother smiles as she carries her daughter. I am riding in the passenger seat of a car, and as we pass through this small trading center on the way to work, my eyes connect with theirs. For a moment I forget where I am. The context of the situation is lost to the simple expressions of joy seen in their faces.

This connection is precious in a place where you are often set far apart from those around you. Yes, I live in their community and I shop in their markets and at their stores. I travel their streets and say hello to their kids, but I am foreign to them. The place where I was born and the color of my skin are the most apparent, but also the least significant. They make me a foreigner, but they don't set me apart as our differing perspectives do.

Knowing other places, other people, other ways of living means that we see the smoking tailpipe, the innocent laughter of children, the piles of tomatoes and the bicycle taxi in a different light. The fact that I choose to be here—and could leave tomorrow—creates a distance between us. I could get a job that pays more in a month then they will earn in the next ten years. Basically, we have a different set of options available to us. No doubt, I have more. Though they too have access to options that I don't. The lives that they live are as inaccessible to me as my life is to them.

So as I move through this place I reflect on what it is that sets us apart and what unites us.

While it is the differences that draw our focus, that which we share is by far in the majority. It must also be our hope for a better tomorrow.