“…and letting people in.” I was having my favorite conversation, and asking. “What little things could people do to help the world work better? To help it change.” And my new friend, who became the 162nd Facebook like, explained, “you know, like letting a car into traffic or letting someone to go ahead of you in the checkout line at the grocery store.”

So of course ever since I’ve been thinking about what she said! I’ve become aware of the car exiting the gas station that needed to cut across two lanes of traffic to go the other way when I was stopped at a light. I left him room to pull out when I could have easily blocked the gas station driveway.

And there was the person who for whatever reason insisted he wasn’t in a hurry and I should go ahead of him in line at the grocery. There was the time we all effortlessly merged into one lane of traffic at a highway construction site, when one greedy person could have stuck us all in place for half an hour or so. (That’s one way traffic jams happen—just so you know.) Or the person who let me into the right lane when I was sure I was going to miss an exit and was already planning route B. Oh, yes, and the slow vehicle that pulled over so I could get around him going up a hill.

It’s the wave of thanks you get when you let someone in, which means just slowing down a little so they can edge in ahead of you.

You have those stories too. It’s related to our earlier conversation, Open Doors, and essential to the idea of taking turns so beloved of adults supervising playgrounds.

Perhaps it is related to confronting bullies. Bullying is another way of shutting people out because we don’t understand or agree with someone’s way of dealing with the world or even how they appear to the world. The alternative, the way to make the world work better, is to allow them in —or dare to accept their invitation to join them in their world, if only for a moment.*

Or is it about inviting someone unexpected to be part of a group, at least for a day. Or accepting an invitation, just once, that you’re not really sure about.

Finally it may be about not shutting ourselves in. Allowing others to help us. Being vulnerable. Accepting gifts. No, not indiscriminately — we’ve talking about being a tad suspicious too.

But on the whole, allowing someone in, letting someone else in means we’re changing the world together. We can’t change the world and make it work a little better by ourselves alone. Certainly, just navigating through the day is easier when we let people in and they let us in. There are even bigger possibilities, too. What have you seen? It is through these interconnections that the world can be more whole.

*Bullying is also about feeling insecure, but that’s a different conversation.

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Photo credits from top:
162nd Facebook like: Belinda Banks Frykman — William Frykman
Train, stuck in traffic — eddie welker
Pedestrians and traffic near Wall Street — Spirit Moxie
Quick – to merge, or not to merge — Gary Stevens