My candle had melted down to a two-inch tall mess, and a lot of the mess was on my fingers. I thought it was too pathetic to give to anyone, but a young man took it from my hands. He then bent down and handed the candle to a two-foot tall boy. The boy's eyes lit up like you wouldn't believe. He stood oblivious to everything around him, his whole face smiling, looking with wonder at the little flame in his little fingers.
As I looked down, my whole face smiling, I envisioned an out-of-body experience where I saw the scene from above. Immediately above I only see myself, singing Silent Night, and a tiny boy in awe of his candle. A little higher up and there are a hundred people standing together, nearly all poor, nearly all Muslim, standing in the cold with their little candles and singing (or just listening...mostly listening). Higher up and you see the whole slum, tin houses and brick houses and tarp huts, desperately poor and regular poor mixed together, with a strange constellation of lights moving together about its alleyways. Higher still and you see a city of three million people, lights on in some districts and blacked out in others, full of old money and new money and no money, where the most powerful people in the state live in gigantic houses and fancy condo complexes side-by-side with the poorest slums I've ever seen. Higher still and you see the largest state in the world, two hundred million people and counting, one percent of whom are celebrating like we are celebrating that night.
I couldn't get any higher than that. But back down on the ground, I looked at a little boy with a candle lighting up his face and wondered at it all.
As I looked down, my whole face smiling, I envisioned an out-of-body experience where I saw the scene from above. Immediately above I only see myself, singing Silent Night, and a tiny boy in awe of his candle. A little higher up and there are a hundred people standing together, nearly all poor, nearly all Muslim, standing in the cold with their little candles and singing (or just listening...mostly listening). Higher up and you see the whole slum, tin houses and brick houses and tarp huts, desperately poor and regular poor mixed together, with a strange constellation of lights moving together about its alleyways. Higher still and you see a city of three million people, lights on in some districts and blacked out in others, full of old money and new money and no money, where the most powerful people in the state live in gigantic houses and fancy condo complexes side-by-side with the poorest slums I've ever seen. Higher still and you see the largest state in the world, two hundred million people and counting, one percent of whom are celebrating like we are celebrating that night.
I couldn't get any higher than that. But back down on the ground, I looked at a little boy with a candle lighting up his face and wondered at it all.
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