The bicycle mangled into a pretzel splayed out across Southport Avenue just in front of the Jewel Foods Store. The rider on his back on the ground. Tucked into an emergency blanket trying to raise his head from the concrete. Young guy. Dizzy. The sirens wailing in the distance. Cars slowing down from both directions. Because standing guard over this kid there is this cop. He is directing the cars with the beams of his flashlight. Slowing then guiding cars from both directions. Away from the kid on his back in the street. The cop setting a pace, a rhythm with the beam of his light. No big thing, he’d tell anyone who’d ask. This is what he does every day. Till you look at his face for just one real holiday moment and you see it. You see the cop look at the kid on the street. Between every single car he’s directed to glide safely by. And you see the look the cop gives the kid. The look that says this is my watch. And while you are here, while you are in my charge, there will be nothing that will hurt you. You will be safe. You will be just fine.
And what happens next is that all the larger troubles of our common world, just for a moment fade away. The fire on the flames of divisiveness, the poisoning of our planet under emergency blankets of denial and flat out lies, and the cruelty to the most vulnerable among us in our self righteous sneer of “I got mine. Why can’t you get yours?”—-it all just fades.
As that one cop guards his charge, all those larger troubles fade for just a moment and just for that one golden moment . . . you hope.