The anonymous waiter who runs the Waiter Rant blog seems like a pretty angry person, but his entry Random Brokenness struck a chord:

A wiser man than me once said we come together not in our strengths but in our brokenness. The universe can hobble us all. When we see some one like Claude we should remember our own brokenness. Deliver him some soup — not judgment.

He’s talking about tolerance of homeless people. The brokenness I deal with is disability, but the principle is the same. Compassion for the less fortunate, and an understanding that we are all in the same boat, and all of us abled and disabled in different ways, is extremely important. It isn’t always easy to remember. It isn’t even always a simple thing to recognize the brokenness around us. But holding on to that feeling of generosity towards that brokenness helps to keep me grounded and in touch with the people around me.