Parakalein

A week ago I was in NYC picking up my packet for the New York City Marathon.

Runners were coming together from all over the world, from all nationalities, all ethnicities, all political ideologies, all religious and non-religious orientations, all races, all sexual preferences, all philosophical positions, and all realities to run a race that is "like none other".

Many runners who came to use their feet and sneakers switched to use gloves and hands to help people dig out of debris and to lend a "helping hand" rather than "running feet".  This was amazing to watch happen and to be part of.

There was no political, religious, ethnic, racial, or gender posturing.  There was runners taking the position of compassion.  Compassion overruled agenda.  They had all come, 47000 of them, to NYC to do an amazing run.  It became an amazing fete of a sense of global community a new kind of "global warming". It warmed all the hurt, cynical, overwhelmed parts of people to see people helping people.
That is the way the church, the synagogue, the temple, the mosque, etc. should be.  We are each others neighbors.  The world of neighbors came into the NYC neighborhood.  We all became what we already are, "good neighbors" doing good from hearts of compassion and creating a "good feeling"in the presence of tragedy and trauma.

The "race like none other" took on a new dimension of seeing the human race in action.  A "moment like none other" making the 2012 ING NYC Marathon a Race Like None Other!