I just watched Hidden Figures. What an extraordinary movie.
When we left the theater, my husband turned to me and said, “You should be ashamed. Your people were so mean.”
I replied, “I know right?!! It’s so easy today to forget how bad it was then. I knew about the water fountains, but the coffee pot?!! Geez!”
The movie, though with a bit of dramatic license, is a good reminder of how bad it was for many people in the United States.
But what I noticed, what is so easily missed in the sea of injustices, were the little acts by individuals that made a difference in their small sphere of influence.
- The supportive husbands. All three main characters had them.
- Dorothy Vaughn’s dedication to, not just her own advancement, but the advancement of all her ‘girls.’
- Karl Zielinski’s encouragement of Mary Jackson to become an engineer.
- The judge allowing Mary Jackson to attend night classes at an all white school.
- Dorothy Vaughn’s compassionate, yet authentic (pushback), ‘acceptance’ of Vivian Mitchell’s non-racist assurances.
- Al Harrison’s rejection of segregated coffee machines and bathrooms at NASA.
- Astronaut John Glenn’s equal greeting of all NASA employees (Glenn really did ask for ‘the girl’ to check the computer’s math)
- An anonymous co-worker sharing his phone with Katherine Johnson so she could call her family
- Paul Stafford, Katherine Johnson’s supervisor, bringing her a cup of coffee.
We can’t all be the Martin Luther King, Jr, of our times… but we can be just a little like him, and even a little like other figures we honor in our religious and cultural traditions, by doing little things in our daily lives that make the world a better place – that positively impact our immediate sphere of influence.
We can not buy into, react to, or spread negative stereotypes of groups to which we don’t personally belong and have no real idea what that community is like.
We can understand we have never walked in their shoes and they have never walked in ours.
We can pay attention to hardships others face in society due to some characteristic they may possess – and do that even while we may be facing our own hardships due to our own characteristics.
We can react to each other, if not with full love, at least with compassion.
These videos are all about bringing awareness to the #LoveGlassesRevolution founded by my close friends Tara Ijai & the CHOICE we all have in every moment to see the world around us through the lens of love, empowerment & joy.
Should this 30-day challenge speak to you & you’d like to join the party:
1. Make the decision
2. Choose something that speaks to you that is reflective of love (it can be a video, quotes, art, random acts of kindness, reading a page of your favorite book, etc.)
3. Share it! We could all use more of that! The gift is in both the sharing and receiving.
There is no limit to what we can accomplish together if we share a small part of ourselves with each other. That is love. That is being alive.