Start Date: April 22, 2023

I was taking a walk one morning on the commercial strip in my neighborhood. Let’s just say that it’s not what it used to be.  People on the street, on drugs, vandals, impaired individuals. I try to make a quick assessment of people I pass. One man on a bike seemed relatively harmless but he was on the sidewalk, perpetually circling back no matter how much I attempted to let him get ahead. So at one point I positioned myself at a gas station and stood with a woman who I believe was waiting for the bus. I noticed she had a T-shirt. It had two lines. They said “Work Hard” and “Be Nice”.  I nodded my approval. She said it was a gift from a friend. How basic. How simple. How lovely.

I was reminded that so many of the hardest working people, with the least, seem to live out that motto.

There is the man at the newsstand. I walk most days of the year. It dawned on me once that he is there Monday through Sunday and then all over. He is there on Thanksgiving and on Christmas. I think I have seen a substitute a few days this year. But for the most part this is his life. He is there on the street in the early mornings when the papers are dropped off. He is there in the afternoon when the summer valley heat is oppressive. We hear so many excuses for those who steal and loot.  But as for the man at the newsstand, he just shows up.  

Then I went on past the hardware store. It was too early to be open. But a sweet man was washing the windows. I struggled with his dialect but we noted the nice day.  He said something along the lines of “God is good. All is good with God.  Even bad times can be good with God”. He had such a wonderful genuine smile, working hard to wash the windows around the shopping cart left by a street person. I wondered if he had more privilege than the man curled up on the sidewalk next door, or did he just have more faith. God bless him.

I was making my way across a street on my walk and realized there was a big SUV on the boulevard waiting to turn left. I am a little slow and I know from driving that it is challenging to be hanging out mid-turn waiting for a pedestrian. Also it was a big car and drivers aren’t always so patient these days. So I tried to shuffle more quickly. That is about the best I can do these days.  After I crossed, the car pulled into the turn and rolled down the window. The man said to me “Don’t run. We must wait for you. Don’t run”. I thanked him and said I try not to be an obstacle. He said “No’, “I always tell my mother, Don’t run”. Other than being reminded that I am an old lady these days, it was so kind that this man wasn’t in too much of a hurry to let me make my way across the street and only wanted me to be safe. Thank you whoever you are.

I think of so many more. My plumber who worked since his teens, weekdays for a boss and then nights and weekends for himself so he could have his own business. My cleaners who don’t seem to have much but are overjoyed with their new grandchild who lives with them. They are so happy to show me her photos.  There is a place for more complicated lives. Without Steve Jobs my cleaners couldn’t share all their iPhone photos of their granddaughter.

I will never quite be them. But in my way I tried to work well and be nice at my job.  

If only those sleeping on the streets, or rioting in the cities, terrorizing neighbors, shooting people for wearing the wrong colors, if only they could find the soul of those who find joy washing a window, having family together, being at the newsstand everyday.

Imagine if we all chose to “work hard” and “be nice” or at least to appreciate those who do.