I was driving home from a Moscow visit today and a friend called in tears while on the road.
She's a therapist specializing in working with people and children on the Autism spectrum. She was driving to a small town to teach a class to teachers and aides working with kids in this town. The adminstration is fairly progressive, raising money from somewhere to have her drive 30 miles to their village essentially to help them understand how to work with their most troubled kids, some on the spectrum, some not.
The challenge for my friend is not everyone wants her there. She presents new ways of thinking and being with challenging kids. Some of the teachers are ready to quit already and to some, this presents more work, not hope.
As it turned out, we passed each other on the road. She was heading to the school, I was coming home from the therapist.
As I crossed mile after mile of highway, passing tiny towns and villages, rolling hills, grain elevators and two universities, I thought of the very fragile web that keeps us all together and healthy. What knits together a community and keeps it stables, that's a fine balance and usually, people are at the core of what makes it really tick.
I thought of my friend driving to help this community, her words and concepts radiating to potentially help hundreds of kids and families. I thought of the therapist I'd just left, reaching countless people with words of hope and change.
For some reason, the entire scene reminded me of how delicate especially a democracy is, where we've placed quite a bit of autonomy in the hands of communities, cities and families to function well with each other, to run things with minimal oversight from an all-seeing government like what people in China or Russia experience.
Lastly, it reminded me of how tired the celebrity culture makes me. These aren't sentimental thoughts about courageous souls and small towns. These are daily events that define the strength of a nation and a people.
I struggled with the pervasive media culture when our kids were growing up in the '90's, pre-smart phones. Now, it feels incessant, everywhere. And everywhere, someone famous to look up to or track or be shamed by or feel less-than all that.
The two are so far apart, it's hard to fathom how we can be drifting to one and not holding to the other. The other though, the good, seems to almost be in hiding. It is made up of small, deliberate decisions and values, to do good and help people and be talented in all of it. Celebrity culture feels so present and so intense, so real, it almost vibrates.
I don't know any answers to all of that other than I'm happy and my friend is tired but happy. We're satisfied. We aren't searching and seeking, wondering if we've made a difference. We don't lay awake at night and question all we've done. We might feel forgotten but we know we're real.
Ultimately, celebrities are forgotten too. We all are. How we live that road we're on, that's what matters.