Every so often, we are reminded our world — the one before us, the one we can reach out and touch — is not nearly so desperate a place as we might be led to believe.
Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the Columbus Soccer Complex provides one such reminder.
Gaze down on the playing fields from the sidewalk on Third Street North. There before you is a panorama sure to warm any heart. Players and parents, grandmas and toddlers, old and young, black and white — a happy sea of humanity — are all engaged in happy play.
As you move closer, you see the faces, hear snippets of conversation, find a familiar face and enter into this impromptu celebration of community.
Where are the terrors that stalk us? Where are the deep divisions of politics or religion or race that make us enemies? They are out there somewhere, we know, because we are constantly reminded of them.
Those terrors fade to abstraction at this moment, on this pleasant evening when the first whispers of fall greet us like an old friend returning from a long trip.
In this moment, a greater, quieter truth begins to emerge, one easy to miss because it doesn’t scream at us and command our attention.
Here in this place, we find common ground — a shared interest in a healthy community where our children can grow and flourish. We may disagree on a multitude of things, but in the end, we all want what people have always wanted — a happy life among our friends and family, the comfort of knowing we are a part of a community. Our differences don’t seem to matter very much.
Bombarded as we often are with the troubles of the broader world, it is important that we break away, that we find each other by taking a walk through the neighborhood or a stroll through downtown or even a trip to the soccer complex on a weekday evening, where, for once, all the shouting is joyous.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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