What is the value of a human life? A single human life? How much does any one individual person matter against the grand sweep of history and the cosmos?

Early Saturday morning July 5, while walking in my beloved farmland, I met Jamal, a security guard for the United States Department of Agriculture. He stopped me to ask if I had seen how red the moon had been earlier. “You missed something amazing” he said, “but I guess you don’t miss many things amazing with the photos you take in the morning.” He sees me all the time.

Jamal’s night shift had not been easy. Shortly after midnight, he saw a car sitting awkwardly on the side of one of the main farmland roads. When he stopped to investigate, he discovered a woman dead behind the steering wheel, her children crying hysterically in the backseat. He did not know how the mother died, “but I called it in and waited until those kids were taken care of.” Jamal’s face was stricken with sadness. I told him that it must have been a “terrible thing to witness.” He shook his head and said yes, “but not as terrible as January 6.” Jamal had been guarding the Capitol Building that day. “That was terrible, that was a terrible, terrible day,” Jamal said, tears welling up in his eyes. He took a job guarding the USDA farmland because “driving through it in the morning gives me hope.”

I couldn’t stop thinking about Jamal. Despite his broken heart, Jamal had given me hope. I posted about our encounter on Facebook and was overwhelmed by how much hope the post alone had conveyed; how much one single person could impact so many.

I was reminded of the film, “The Life of Chuck” based on a Stephen King novella with the same title. A simple summary of the film’s theme would be, every person contains a universe. Pivotal to this theme are these lines from Walt Whitman’s poem, “Song of Myself”: “I am large. I contain multitudes.”

Walking in farmland on Monday morning, I thought, “Jamal is large. He contains multitudes.” Then I thought of everyone like Jamal who is carrying the burden of sadness because of the hostility of the present administration. I wondered what Jamal would do, i.e. “WWJD”? Then I thought about what he had done. He had spread hope. He wasn’t a super hero — only a single human person.

Inspired by Jamal as well as the ongoing efforts of beloveds to hold the present administration accountable for its continued massacre of so many human hearts, I decided to dedicate my morning sunrises to hope; specifically to a person, a family, a neighborhood, a community, an organization, an institutiion — you name it — in need of hope. On Monday, I walked for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

I am calling this practice, “We Contain Multitudes” and welcome your contribution of the names and places who need the light and hope of a beautiful morning in America.

Will it make a difference? Yes, because I am large. I contain multitudes. You are large. You contain multitudes. Every person contains a universe and every person can make a universe of difference.

All images taken in my beloved farmland between 2015 – 2025.