I really start to be amazed about the secrets I unravel by reading the things you wrote.

On our profile pictures, we just see different people. We see different people every day. It’s nothing we’re not used to. And sometimes when I drive around in the evening, seeing all those headlights coming back at me, there’s one important detail I need to remind myself of, for I would simply be ignorant to it otherwise:

All these headlights belong to people who right now are going to their own destination. Much like me, they have a home they live in, a family, friends, a job, a life. The full spectrum. And their lives might be as turbulent and colorful as my own. But each is entirely different.

The same applies when I go to a store. A cashier greets me with a smile, handles my stuff, takes the money, completes the transaction and thanks me for shopping there.

And I never really think about them. But they’re also having their thoughts, whether they love or hate this job. When their shift is over, they head home. They fulfill a role in their very own life. They write their very own story and are the main character in it.

The same I discovered in this very moment, reading this story.

Tim Maudlin is not a middle aged man with glasses and a trimmed beard. He’s a man who has decided to go through the long and exhausting process of adopting a child. He is a man who has loved this child as his own. He is a man who has gone to great lengths to help this child heal from trauma. He loves this child unconditionally, and would rather give his own life than giving up on this child.

I’ve seen his face since my first day here at Illumination. And I learned about his belief in god by reading his article about fear.

But now I’ve truly read a piece of his soul.

And I’m in awe.