Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Grace

OK. We followed a blind person into the subway today. She lives in our apartment complex but we had never met her before. We were waiting near her for the train and she could hear The Boy beginning to have a meltdown. She is lovely. She announces that she is a music teacher and that she'd like to sing The Boy a song. Right there in the subway.

"What song should I sing him?" she asks.

My father has just taught The Boy a song that morning. So I suggest this song to our new friend. And she delightfully obliges. She has a strong voice, and people look around to enjoy her singing to our Boy.

Only after we changed trains did Laurel suggest to me that requesting "Three Blind Mice" was perhaps not a good idea.

Oops.

She was grace-filled. And kind. She sang about the mice, and then Jingle Bells, let The Boy touch her Braille New York Times and she gave us her details so that we could be in contact.

My first words to her will probably be one of apology. Although I suspect that she will say: "Think nothing of it."

Little moments of grace.

Love, Justin.

8 comments:

Dave Miers said...

that's funny - great song selection!!

Anonymous said...

"Grace
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that
Changed the world

And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness
In everything"
U2

...what this post made me think of...

seapea said...

sniff sniff!!!

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha. I love NY because of moments like this. And I love it because no one here pretends to extend grace. They either do and you can feel it or they don't and you can feel it. There's not much faking of that going on, at least on the subways.

Jim said...

That did make me giggle.

You could teach her "Blind Man"

"Blind man sat by the road and he cried...."

She may see the humour in it.

Goldy said...

I don't know if I would apologise for it. maybe point out the coincidence of it? It certainly was pretty funny! Where does she get braille copies of the NY Times? That's cool!

me said...

justin, i laughed and laughed and laughed. oh i miss youse all!
so much!

Anonymous said...

Justin,
I starting laughing about 5 minutes ago and I am still laughing about this....so many times the truth of what is wrong with our (or other people's) lives really bites - and most people would prefer to ignore what is wrong than face up to it....you on the other hand, are always innocently honest (or honestly innocent?) in the way you treat people...which is so refreshing. I'm sure she's not offended. In fact, I reckon she would have had a chuckle to herself when you got off the subway too! We miss you over here!
Tam