Twins In Their Soul

Brothers and Sisters

I was watching Steve Hartman on CBS news last night when Joel and I both were overcome with laughter and tears.  Two 4 year old girls were absolutely more than best friends.....they consider themselves twins.  One girl is African American and the other is Caucasian.  They love to dress alike and are "closer than sisters".  Their moms are delighted with this connection.  Recently they were at a birthday party and one boy told them they couldn't be twins because they don't have the same color skin.  One of the girls started to cry, but then she replied, "We are twins!  We are twins because we have the same soul."  How sweet!  How profound.

This story took me back to when we had 4 kids and the two oldest were in school.  We went to some school event as a family and later one of the kids told our oldest daughter that our two middle kids could not be her sister and brother because they did not have the same color skin.  I don't even recall what our oldest said in reply, but I do remember she defended our family and tried to explain adoption.

Just this week one man was fired from his radio announcing job and a woman resigned from her teaching position in town an hour from here because of the comments they made towards a couple Hispanic young men playing basketball on the opposing team.  Among other statements on the air, they made the comment that "Just like our President said, they need to go back where they came from." I'm thinking there are times the Native Americans must think that about all the rest of us.  Hmm

One of the young Hispanic men at the game was interviewed a couple of days later, and when he was asked what he felt about what was said, he replied (in perfect English by the way) that he was surprised by what the announcer and teacher said, but was forgiving the two involved for their hurtful comments.  Profound.

Our country has so much to learn, and we can learn a great deal of it from the young.  Whether a teenager with forgiveness in his heart, or four year old girls who are twins because they have the same soul.  Yeah.  I'm thinking we could all use a bit more forgiveness, acceptance, and love for one another.