Four days ago, Mrs. Barbarian walking with me on the trail for our morning exercise, we encountered a man pushing a baby stroller. His maybe 2 1/2 YO daughter was running alongside him, not in the stroller. As we passed Mrs. B smiled at the little girl. She looked up and you could see the wheels turning in her head:
Wrinkles
Glasses
Greying hair
Smile...
A GRANDMA!
She ran to Mrs. B. with arms out. Mrs. B. was hesitant (COVID, you know), but the kid was hugging her legs. The man gently removed her, and everyone apologized about the infection thing. What we all took away was that the little girl saw the important clues about the person she saw, but apparently never gave an instant's thought to the fact that Mrs. B's skin was a different color than hers.
We walked on, and when we looked at each other, we had red eyes. Because at that time of hatred and division, we had just gotten a reminder that humans start out with decency and goodness. Looking back, it was kind of an omen.