Eyes to See

Beth and I sat in her kitchen where we’ve had many a deep conversation over tea, coffee or hot chocolate in vain attempts at solving the problems of our world or at least our individual lives.  That afternoon was no different except that a new Longhorn mug sat warmly between my hands and a picture of a little girl neither of us had any knowledge of the last time we hovered over the bar together was magnetized to the fridge and to both of our hearts.

Without any transition from our prior topic, Beth said, “Avery asked whether or not she has a nightgown.”

Without any hint as to who she was, I asked, “ The doll?” wondering if she meant the toy clad in traditional Vietnamese attire I’d brought over that morning.

“Nomatter.” Beth corrected my assumption nodding her head in the direction of the picture now on a refrigerator in the Austin suburb of Cedar Park that Blanca took over a month ago in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The question from Beth’s four year old is still swirling around my head today.  Not because I’m trying to figure out a way to get pajamas to all the orphans at the Musha Wevana Children’s Home (although perhaps we should), but because little Avery gets it.

She’s not even old enough to attend school.  Her life consists of making mudcakes in the backyard, helping her younger brother find his blankie, and playing with her prized collection of horses.  She’s never been outside the country.  She can have no real concept of the far off land called Zimbabwe where the economy is collapsing and children are left without parents due to the AIDS epidemic and a host of other harsh realities, but her young mind’s eye still has the power to see.

She saw Nomatter wearing a torn white dress in the photo.  Avery has dresses too.  She also has warm fuzzy footy pajamas for the cold nights and pretty princess nightgowns for warmer ones with Dora sets thrown in for variety.

“Mommy, does she have a nightgown?”

I’m not sure how the logic worked out inside her little blond head, but somehow she moved from the story her mom told of Nomatter and the two dimensional photo she saw, to identifying with a living breathing human being… a girl like herself who should have a nightgown too.