Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.
Perhaps an over played quote from a favorite movie of mine (Love Actually, sorry not sorry) but it is something a lot of us feel- that if you look you can find a bit of good in the world. Last week I mentioned that our trip home from daycare includes an El station with no elevator so I have to get Gracie, myself, work & diaper bags, and her stroller down 3 flights of stairs. These stairs are old and they are full of people commuting, getting places in a hurry. I try to wait until the crowds have gone by, as I take each step at an excruciatingly slow speed, carefully manuvering the rear tires of the stroller down one by one. I’ve done this 6 days now, getting in my arm workout, manuvering through the people. And it is where my daily moment of “Heathrow Airport” hits me, because every day without fail people offer to help me.
Businessmen. Other Moms. A group of high schoolers. An old man with his grandchildren. A nurse in scrubs. Young men dressed in what some call the gang banger uniform. It doesn’t seem to matter. Some stop after getting by the side of me, looking back up. “Hey lady, can I grab on?” while others come up from behind me, moving their briefcase to one hand and offering to grab the front of the stroller with another “Here let me help you with that.” I try to refuse, the stroller is heavy and it still still slow with two people and I don’t want anyone to get hurt or be late as a result. Sometimes they just grab on, yelling up “Come on now, we’ll get right down” but most of the time, as soon as I’ve assured someone “No thanks, I do this every day I’m just slow” someone is right behind them “Ma’am can I help you with that? This station needs an elevator doesn’t it?”
It is my daily moment of humanity, my moment where I remember what Hugh Grant said, that there really is more good in the world than bad. And sometimes, at the end of a really crappy day, or a really cruddy train trip home, that little breath of “Hey lady can I help you” is exactly what I need, even if my answer is no.
