It’s always been easy to allow pessimism to narrow our vision so much that we only see the worst in others, but maybe never more so than today. Social media has given us more ways than ever to show our backsides to the world.
Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati went silent. So did living rooms and dens across the country. As we watched players from both teams cry and pray, the importance of the game became unimportant. We didn’t care about playoff seedings, division titles, fantasy league championships or betting parlays.Most of us still don’t. Hamlin, whose heartbeat was restored on the field, is in critical condition in a Cincinnati hospital. That’s what matters to us.
The best in us came out. Bills and Bengals fans hugged and prayed together in the stadium, then filed out quietly and peacefully. An online fundraiser started by Hamlin to buy toys for kids in his hometown of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, was flooded with donations. Hamlin’s goal was to raise $2,500. By noon Tuesday, there was $4.3 million in the account.
A writing instructor in college often lectured about getting to that kind of shared experience in our work. What we think is most personal, he said, is actually most common.