unconditional friendliness

who would have thought that an infant has so much to offer in the way of life lessons? i have learned so much about life from my almost 5 month old baby daughter...who cannot speak a word...but who's innocent example speaks volumes. one of the things i have learned from her is that i should be friendlier to ALL people. she smiles at anyone and everyone. she tries to talk to anyone and everyone. now, while i will have to have many talks about "strangers" with her in the future, for now i am learning something from this. she does not see race. she does not see age discrimination. she doesn't judge someone because they look different, or aren't dressed as "normal" people should. for example, yesterday i stopped at wendy's on my trip back home from indiana. an employee was washing off tables, and this man had a very obvious mental handicap. he looked funny. he would be someone i wouldn't really try talking to or smile at. but there's my sweet daughter, staring at him and smiling...trying to talk to him. now, addie is to innocent to notice certain things about people at this time in her life. but what a lesson to learn from her. she is friendly to everyone. she doesn't judge a person by how they look. shouldn't I be more like her? shouldn't we ALL be more like her? what if we stopped staring judgementally at people who are dressed a certain way, or act a certain way, or look a certain way...and instead went out of our way to be kind and at least smile?
i think that would make a world of a difference!