Every Human Heart—The People of Walmart

I’ve laughed at them too. The images of people with multi-colored mullets, women bursting out of pink yoga pants three sizes too small, guys bending over in the automotive aisle and unknowingly showing their asses.

It’s strange how an Internet image shot from behind makes it okay to laugh. It places layers of safe, comfortable distance and anonymity between you and that other human heart.

It’s different when you’re there picking up filters for your humidifier and some evaporated milk. Human frailty is not an abstraction at Walmart. It’s real. It’s anything but comfortable. And it challenges the progress you think you’ve made morally and spiritually.

I checked my short shopping list on my Things app, tossed my phone in my purse and looked up to see two brothers darting between the housewares aisles. They shared a deformity that left their heads misshapen, their faces sunken and would have landed them in a side show in the 19th century. They were searching for something intently, loudly and with unyielding purpose, their speech impediment complicated and obvious.

I felt a strange combination of pity (which they didn’t ask for) and a need to keep my distance from them (which I’m not proud of) as well as from the agitated guy who was pacing up and down the aisles, arguing with and cussing at someone on his cell phone (ok, maybe keeping some distance was advisable here.).

There we were. The people of Walmart. The brothers with the deformity, the agitated guy and me. With my judgmental mind and our four imperfect human hearts.

Walmart is the great equalizer. If you are in there, you have the same goal as everyone else—saving some money. More important, you realize that you are no better than anyone else.

Namaste, Walmart shoppers. The light in me honors the light in you. Regardless of how we look. Regardless of our physical, mental and spiritual impairments. I have a lot to work on: my judgmental nature, my lack of understanding. I honor the light in you with a promise to keep working on these things.