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The President came to town the other day. As I made my way into the auditorium, trying to neither shove nor be shoved, I thought to myself that doing the right thing shouldn't take so much effort. How many more meetings, how many more rallies, how many more town halls, how many more phone calls to congressmen and letters to editors -- how much longer until our efforts bear fruit? Will all this effort ever be worth the outcome?
Thus, my internal muttering continued as I made my way to my seat. The crowd thinned a little as I approached the sectioned-off area and prepared to present my ticket to the volunteer usher, and I looked up to see that woman staring back at me with a look that can only be described as shock. After a moment she shook her head a bit and smiled wanly; as she checked my ticket she apologized and explained that I looked exactly like her lifelong best friend who had recently passed away.
Looking around at the crowd and the fuss she said, "She would have loved this. She would have been here, too." On an impulse that did not come from my usual inclination I said, "Well I'll bet, in that case, that she would have walked in here and given you a hug, so I'll just do that on her behalf." And I did. She laughed and said that had just made her day, that it was the first time she'd smiled all week.
It occured to me, as I finally sat down, that if a simple thirty-second conversation can bring something good for someone, what's a few more meetings, a few more rallies, a few more town halls. . .
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