Poor Ann

 

I’ve felt bad for her for days now.

Every once in awhile,

She’ll enter my mind

And I’ll simply say,

“Poor Ann,”

And then I’ll sigh.

 

The thing is,

Ann isn’t a real person.

She popped out of a page of “The Giver” a few days ago,

And planted herself in my heart.

 

“Ann was very ordinary,

Unremarkable.

She looked small.

No one had ever smiled at her.”

 

Poor Ann.

To be so ordinary and unremarkable that she shrank into smallness.

To not be smiled at.

It’s all very, very sad.

 

The thing is,

Maybe Ann is real,

And maybe I know her.

 

Maybe her name isn’t Ann.

Maybe her name is one of the many students I teach.

Or maybe her name is one of the many people that I pass by each day.

And maybe she wouldn’t be so ordinary and unremarkable and small if she were only seen

And maybe she could be seen through a smile.

 

Friends: This world is full of Ann.

Let’s make it our goal to see Ann:

To find her extra-ordinary and remarkable,

To build her up,

And to smile at her until our faces hurt.

 

Everyone deserves to be seen by someone.

 

May we be a people who see,

And smile,

Today.