I got up early to take Robin out of the bedroom where she and Emma were sleeping, I wanted to take her into town and let Emma sleep.
She smiled happily and I took her downstairs and gave her her bottle and some cheerios and yoghurt. Maria and I put her in the car seat and went into town, where we walked up and down Main Street. In our community, everyone wants to see the baby, it is important
We walked up and down for an hour, she gurgled happily and watched the people and cards. Time now to take her and Emma to Albany and the train back to New York. We stopped to show her to several neighbors who asked to see her. Emma thinks I’m just eager to show her off, but the truth is, the community is eager to know each other.
We may or may not love one another here, but we know each other here. I appreciate being known. And Robin is now a part of that. And people just love babies.
It was a great visit, we got to know and trust one another. She is a sweet and curious and loving creature. Emma has done a wonderful job. More later.
They called him Sadiq but when I took his portrait, he asked me to use the name he preferred, his real name: Thet Naing Min. I asked him to write it down so I would get it right. It will take me months to get all of the refugee kids names right, they are all different and new to me. But it’s important that I do it.
I was impressed by Thet Naing Min, I asked him if the markings on his cheeks were medicine, but he said it was lotion to protect him from the sun. He and I had extra time to talk during the refugee kid’s visit tot he farm, it is Ramadan, an important Muslim holiday and Thet is fasting for the next 30 days.
I paid special attention to him yesterday, because so many of the children were hungry, tired after soccer practice and hours of visiting farms, and they were eager to eat. Thet Naing Min held back, when there was food, he went off to sit by himself or on a bench. Yet he seemed quite happy and at piece.
He had no problem passing up the pizza and ice cream, the other kids were eating, he can eat in the evening after 8 p.m. The holiday is important to him and he was careful to honor it. Sacrifice and delayed gratification are not hallmarks of American culture. So is complaining and whining.
Thet did not complain or whine, or seem to mind waiting for food. He will be doing it every day for a month. He had considerable character, I could see it and sense it.
Thet asked me a number of questions during his visit. How did I train Red? Would i consider please to bring him to the next soccer games, he might, he said, give the team strength and luck? Why did I invite the children? What did I do for a living?
When Maria saw that Thet was not eating the pizza at Pompanuck, she sat with him and talked to him through lunch. Like me, she was impressed. He told her the same thing he told me. “Jon came to the last soccer game. He was there. He showed up.”
The refugee children’s visit to the farm was so important to me, one of the landmark days of my new life. I will never forget it.
I was very proud to get to know Thet Naing Min, he had great poise, dignity and intelligence about him. It is unusual for me to talk ethics and morality to someone so young, but Thet is a profoundly ethical and thoughtful young man. And he is deeply religious, which some feel is a dangerous thing, but which struck me as a beautiful thing.
Thet didn’t have even a slight problem passing up the pizza and the ice cream. He asked if he could come back. Anytime, I said. I would enjoy getting to know him better.
He comes from Southeast Asia, from a country that has known great and painful turmoil. He thanked me twice for showing up at the soccer game. Sadiq, I said, forgetting his real name, it was a small thing, really.
Now, he said showing up is a big thing. Showing up is important. And I understood what he meant.
In our culture, humanity seems to increasingly be a political, not a personal thing. The visits yesterday were not about politics for me, but my own sense of humanity and empathy.
We are called to show up for humanity, and for empathy.
Empathy, I told Thet, is the hallmark of the noble spirit, the foundation of social justice, and the pathway to reaching my highest human potential.
