EMBRACE UNITY

Waking up each morning the Sun casts a warm glow over America, passing through the East coast, climbing over the Appalachians, sailing along the Mississippi, gliding through the Great Plains, and climbing, once again, over the Rockies before touching the Pacific.

Millions of faces are greeted by the blinding Sun as they exit their homes. Children line up on street corners for bright yellow school buses, young men and women drive off in their cars, one hand on the wheel and coffee in the other, and older people rock on porches, watching the morning commotion unfold. People pass each other, but fail to acknowledge each other. They ignore each other.

A young woman carrying a red purse exits her house, looking away from a young man entering a blue car across the street. Neighbors, once childhood friends, yet years ago their friendship had ended. Once they longed for the company, now they are embittered by years of distaste, of silence, of separation, of loneliness. Each day is the same as the last, the same as the past, until it isn’t.

Until today.

The young woman and man cross the sidewalk, embrace in the center of the road, stopping traffic, stopping the people around them. This day in America, as the sun radiates a golden light over the plains, the mountains, the rivers, the oceans, people — friends, enemies, acquaintances, strangers — walk across the road, come together, and embrace.