KISS AN ARTIST TODAY 

Reflections by Maxie Dunnam

I’m intrigued by bumper stickers. I sometimes get dangerously close to a car in order to see what is being proclaimed on the bumper sticker.

A recent sticker got my immediate attention, “Kiss an artist today.” That’s easy for me. My wife and my daughter are artists.

But the thought is expansive. I began to reflect. I remembered a story John Powell told about two priests who experienced a rich and
rewarding friendship. They struggled together through the wilderness of long seminary training and worked together in a community ministry.

Then one of the two friends was hit by a car and killed in front of their residence. The other knelt at the side of his old friend, gently
cradled the brother’s head on his arm, and before all the people who had gathered blurted out, “Don’t die! You can’t die! I never told you I loved you.”

It could happen to any one of us, but it need not. Before this day ends, do two things. One, even if you have to call them on the phone or write them a note, tell a person you have not told recently that you love them. Two, for a person you are always telling you love, do something that will validate your words.

Drive carefully, but pay attention to those bumper stickers. Just today I read this one: Don’t believe everything you think.