Solution to race hate lies in small gestures

IT was a glorious morning as we travelled to church on Sunday from the most beautiful place on Earth, Schoenies, to celebrate the Risen Lord.

It was a morning reminiscent of the true meaning of Easter, reminding us that “this is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it”.

On the way home after the St John’s church service we stopped at the local supermarket.

My wife, in the queue at the till, happened to be behind a woman with a trolley full of groceries worth well more than R1 000.

The woman asked my wife if she had a “shop card”?

Nonplussed, my wife nodded her head, but was quite put out and suspicious of the strange request.

However, the woman was quick to add, “I don’t have a card and I so would like someone else to benefit from my points!” Dumbfounded, my wife handed over her card.

Afterwards the two women passed each other in the car park.

My wife thanked her for her generous deed, to which her benefactress replied, “At our age and especially today we need to be kind to each other!”

All my wife had with her were some Easter eggs, which she spontaneously handed over.

And the telling of the story in the car park brought a tear to my eye, for why?

One woman was black and the other white, and for a moment in this benighted country of ours, common humanity prevailed.

That such a tiny gesture is felt so profoundly exemplifies the huge chasm that still exists between our different races and cultures.

That such a small incident makes one feel love will prevail over hatred, that in small gestures such as these lies the solution to all the racial rottenness that is currently engulfing our country.

That such a small gesture has made me look at myself, my own cynical approach and attitude to the racial putrescence presently overwhelming our beloved South Africa.

I, too, in so many ways need to change.

It had started to cloud over as we returned home, but once again hope beat eternally in our hearts as we truly “rejoiced in the day the Lord has made”!

Talbot Cox, Schoenmakerskop, Port Elizabeth