Just So You Know

Maddie (Madison Lintz) says, “Dad. Just so you know. When I can't reach you? It scares me. A lot. Because I'm out there. On the streets. And I see all the bad shit that goes on. And it just, it gets in your head, you know?”

Dad says, “I do.”  (Bosch Legacy. Season 1, Episode.9)

Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) is a seasoned detective with many years on the force responding to his daughter, a boot (a new term for me that refers to a rookie in the police department).

I can’t remember what triggered this exchange, but I imagine it was something like dad was too busy fighting crime to respond to his daughter’s cell phone ring. I mean, it’s not easy to call a time-out amid an intense gun battle.

Parents. Children. I am confident that we could reverse the assigned dialogue above with little effort. When we love someone, we are concerned when we can’t reach them. Our mind tends to find very dark places.

When communication is reinstated, the relief is overwhelming even if we don’t’ show it. Harry’s simple, “I do” is not the full story of the feelings he’s experiencing.

In my mind, all of this is as it should be.

But my mind wanders and I begin to ask difficult questions.

• When I interact with people in my own sphere, I wonder if I am aware enough to see the brewing storms they might be facing "on the streets". 
• When I interact with people in my own sphere, my tiny little world, I wonder if I have the ability to sense the worry in their hearts.
• When I interact with people in my own sphere, I wonder if I am capable of doing anything to help alleviate or at least smooth out just one wrinkle of their anxiety.

And my mind continues to wander asking questions that can topple any sense of security.

• Watching or reading the news, I hear of the struggles of people whose lives have been uprooted and destroyed in Ukraine.
• Through video, I see parents and children touched deeply by school shootings.
• I feel the cool air of the A/C unit while hearing of the recent deaths in India, Pakistan, and nearly 1,600 in the United States (2021) – all due to heat. 

Of course, worldly and personal troubles far exceed any references I could make here.  But all of this, whether local or global, makes me wonder. 

I wonder about empathy.

“If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” Book of James 2:16-17

Action.

• We can’t change the world all by ourselves. 
• We can’t change our neighborhood all by ourselves.
• We can’t even change our families, all by ourselves.

But I know that occasionally, I’ll notice something. And occasionally, when I do notice something, I get this nudge that says, “DO something.”

I pray that when this happens, I do something.