It was completely staged. The women in the check out line who were unable to pay for their groceries were acting. The heckler who challenged the generosity of strangers was pretending too. Yet this
video captured something as real as it gets. I had no time for tears but my throat constricted both times I watched it and my need to hurry dissipated as I lost myself in the drama.
We are all obsessively egocentric, and it can take dire circumstances to distract us. The producers of What Would You Do?
fabricated those events. People who had not woken up that day with an imperative to be heroic responded to the clarion call.
"Someone else has a need? I guess I can put my primary focus on hold." People handed over cash without questions, to pay for the food of others.
When you live in close quarters with other flawed humans, the opportunity for openhandedness shows up. The other day I wanted to crawl into bed and stay there, but my son's need for a ride trumped that. For twenty years of nursing babies I set aside the desire for uninterrupted sleep to be a
nighttime parent.
Marriage provides copious opportunities for sharing the limelight of our own stage.
There will come a day when I look back on the choices I have made. I will be the star of What Did I Do? The cameras are already running, and the only one in the audience will be me.
