Most of you understand my intense relationship with people. I love them, but I hate them which makes for a very complicated scenario. On the Disney cruise, interacting with others is kind of a given. I mean I guess you could ignore people, but this is Disney and I worked for them, so I kind of adopted their mantra of smiling and engaging with others. What I love about God’s plan is He always puts the right people in my path. Out of thousands of passengers, I met several families who had family members with special needs. It connected us in a way that no one else, unless they have walked the walk, understands.
We met a family from Georgia who lost a family member too early and he too had special needs. This is the family who wanted to adopt Bailey and frankly, there are days that I am open to that, but only on a temporary basis. There was gentleman with Down syndrome named Frankie that ended up hanging with Bailey during the Pirate dance party. They were joined by a young man named Chris. Chris was around Bryce’s age heading off to college, who just wanted to hang with these two. The three danced and danced. It was an excellent example that no matter our differences, we need to focus on our similarities. That is what unifies us.
Spending a week with several thousand of my closest friends gave me some hope. I found that the general population has some humanity about them. That we can be kind to one another. That a smile goes a long way and that compassion lies within us. We simply have to reach inside to use it. With the world situation deteriorating, I see a glimmer of light that maybe, just maybe, we can recover. Perhaps regain a certain level of decency when dealing with people that might be different from us. Fear leads us to hate. Love leads us to acceptance and tolerance. I can tell you from experience, the path to love is a lot smoother than the rocky road of hate. We are more alike than different.
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