The Crossing

“Five days a week, in the bright early mornings of September and the creeping twilight of February afternoons, Richard Henderson, crossing guard, oversaw those arrivals, holding hands, bumping fists, hollering at traffic, picking up dropped homework. ‘My man, Wilder,’ he would call out to a 4-year-old boy. ‘Spider-Man,’ he’d chuckle at the preschooler clutching for dear life a figurine of his favorite superhero. ‘Miss Seattle,’ he’d address a third-grade girl, a new student from the West Coast who loyally wore a Seahawks cap every day.” This is the story of a crossing guard. It’s the story of how people from different backgrounds can cross the chasm and find commonality. Yes, it’s also about senseless violence and how a man who kept kids safe from the streets was felled by those streets. But it’s also about something that, if you spend enough time reading the news and listening to the politicians, you could forget even exists anymore. Human connection. NYT (Gift Article): Farewell, and Thanks, to a Man Who Kept Kids Safe.