If you happen to drop your wallet on the ground, someone sees it fall, they are going to pick up and give it back to you. That’s what Bob Crawford, bassist and vocalist for the group The Avett Brothers, told Jen Psaki of Inside Politics. Crawford, along with his six bandmates, have a good perspective on Americans and their values because they have been traveling the road for decades.
Their music is rooted in country and many of their fans may skew conservative, but as Crawford’s comment implies, they are human first, political beings second or maybe even third.
When you go to social media accounts, says Crawford, you will see the divides that separate us, often tragically. But, when you watch how people interact up close and personally you see decency. The courtesy that generations were taught may not be evident online but it is vibrant and live person to person.
One of the reasons I have been exploring the topic of grace for the past five years is for this precise reason. We are better people that are depicted from afar. It’s not a problem of how we are portrayed in the media. It is an issue of how we interact with one another. Kindness is apolitical. It is human. As a nation we face great challenges. As individuals we can learn to get along better with one another because we know how to do so. It’s just a matter of putting those lessons to work.