Quick update: our new friend from yesterday came down from the overpass after 15 long hours. He had the support of family, friends and strangers in his struggle on the edge of life or death. Reports say the crowd even sang hymns to help him in his time of need. What if we all had that much compassion daily?


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As I type this, there is a man precariously hanging onto the side of a chain link fence above a freeway. He is less than a mile from my location. It's evening and he's been hanging on since 5:30 this morning.

As I drove towards the overpass to get on the freeway at 7am, I was detoured by police for no apparent reason. I couldn't see the man on the other side of the bridge fencing and his presence was still invisible upon my arrival back in town later that day. Reports say his family members are there attempting to talk him off the ledge to no avail. Onlookers watch and film on their cell phones devoid of emotion for the man, hoping for some viral YouTube video. Hours after the showdown began in my city, an unnamed woman walked onto the campus of the YouTube headquarters and showered bullets on employees before turning the gun on herself.

It was not a night for shopping or merriment but I found myself forced into stores less than a mile from the man on the bridge for various reasons. Upon questioning employees as to the occurrence, I found strangers wearing their hearts on their sleeves for some unknown fellow neighbor.  I drove home in awe of the love felt for this man. If he only knew of the love that was being sent out to him from folks who had never met him and probably never would.

We can only surmise as to what brought him to that overpass. Scorned love, loss of employment, mental disorder, feeling that everything was out of control and overwhelming and on and on. We'll never know but what we do know is the love that accompanied his single act. The love from strangers willing him to come down. Think of the change we could enact if we could put aside our problems for just a moment and send that love to those in need. Or if we could turn that love inwards upon ourselves.

I saw a community tonight that had a lot of caring and love for a single human being. I witnessed a humanity that isn't the scary monster the media turns us into. We have it in us to enact change and be the love that we and others so desperately need. What small loving act can you do today for yourself or someone else?