One definition of the words "someone else" might be -- "has experiences and beliefs that are so far away from the place I like to refer to as reality that, well, yikes." Is this today's empathy challenge? And then I try to resonate with some part of that person.

I grew up in Guyana, though I was born here. I hear her saying that she can get to a higher societal place more reliably with almost any white partner than she can with most black partners.

She might not be wrong. She might make me uncomfortable.

So few of us live, earn, or prosper past a certain point. So much of that is ambient. It's tough to be here. At the risk of being that one hippie guy -- I go out of my way to beam affection and respect to our chromatic cohort -- to be one of us is to be like someone in outer space.

We move through an environment full of different ways in which to exit it involuntarily -- we all need a (virtual) hug. (I know. Hippie).