So if I can’t save the world,

then can I be your perfect stranger?

a kind reminder of existing goodness

worth saving

worth fighting for? 

 

So if I can’t stop this suffering

I see on the screens

or learn in my classes?

on the news 

the scientists warnings 

I have kept my eyes open with prying fingers

running a marathon for years to understand 

why and when and how this story of our humanity might lead us and

I have been devastated by our decisions 

Because I know these same decisions live inside me too.

So then can I hold your door open?

Meet your eyes and smile in encouragement?

Give you directions and walk you home?

Be a conversation that surprises you

Inspires you

Engages you

Moves you unexpectedly

Can I pay for your coffee? 

Can I make you feel safe?

So that you might lay down your armored guard

And things real in us can find space to meet? 

 

And in these small forms,

these physical manifestations,

I give a name to a formless truth.

Of love’s energy for love's sake

With nothing to gain but life’s interacting kindness.

As god seeing itself in a stranger

And recognizing its existence.

Because what is spirit, if not the energy of life itself?

As the overflowing alchemy of all things

That strips away these learned falsities

And imagined blindfolds that keep us separate.

 

In places and times unfamiliar

I have found my perfect strangers everywhere 

You have taken turns holding my hand

Passed like a baton and caught by you

I have felt your warmth and seen your smiles

I have experienced your goodness 

Been deeply inspired by your beauty 

Reminding me of who I will work for 

Of who I will not give up on.

 

So is it in this exchange?

Not me, but rather this contagiousness that might save the world?

A symphony of perfect strangers 

Each playing their chord

For one harmonious song

that keeps you company

that keeps you hopeful.

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