Today, as I recover in the cold from my short trip to see my beautiful sisters before leaving, I am reminded of the parable of the good Samaritan. Yes it just popped into my mind.

Next I find myself remembering a question I was asked earlier this year. The question was: who was my brother between Fischer and Matanzima? I had no clue who Matanzima was, but I knew vaguely who Fischer was — or at least within the context of the conversation, I could guess reference was being made to Bram! For this reason, I declared Bram to be my brother even though I knew that amounted to conceding ‘defeat’. This was truly humbling to me because I was reminded (yet again) the importance of viewing things from a perspective that values all humanity. In connection to the parable, I think I was reminded that those that I should call brothers, sisters, neighbours, etc should be those like the good Samaritan not those like the priest, the Levitan, apartheid supporters, etc. Therefore, colour, race, social standing, sexual orientation, etc should be irrelevant.

With this refreshing reminder, my prayer is to be more like the Samaritan with each day. As is, I am not sure how far I would go to be helpful to a perfect stranger and this concerns me; for I really want to be one who helps others without reservations. I want this because I am trying to be maintain a degree of optimism in my life.