MORNING CAR LINE, A RANDOM TUESDAY:
“…Don’t let yourself go,
‘Cause everybody cries,
Everybody hurts sometimes…”
“Everybody Hurts”  ~~R.E.M.~~

     Powerful lyrics I think about sometimes as I participate in one of the unanticipated joys of my job, morning car line. Every morning, every car that drops off a student exits past me or drops off their dearest treasure at my door. Every morning, another opportunity to give a child’s day a jump-start.
      But what about everybody behind the wheel. The moms, the dads, the grandparents. The warriors, the confident that drive
by with a sure hand wave & sure smile. Then the rest of everybody, the hurting, the beat up, the down trodden, the ones with baggage no one sees on a random Tuesday. The ones that use a wave & a smile like a secret door, hiding the indications of their humanity, their hurt.
      The sad anniversary that a random Tuesday might hold, the loss of a child or a parent…an aging parent…the loss of a home due to too much flame or too few funds…the Tuesday morning after a Monday pink slip…the marriage on the brink…the tightrope of a toxic job that can’t be left because someone at the job needs them but they can’t stay because people they need are leaving & there’s the need of a paycheck & the weekend is as far in the distance as 5:00 Tuesday afternoon.
       For those everybody’s, a wave, a smile from me can jump-start their day. Knowing that treasure I help get out of the car is safe & will be safe until afternoon car line. A small, kind gesture on a random Tuesday amongst the chaos & toxicity, putting Ephesians 4:32 to work “…be kind & compassionate to one another…”, because everybody hurts.