Have you seen the new holiday ad released by Amazon UK yet? If not, please do yourself a favor and watch it immediately. It’s exquisitely soothing, like a warm salve for the third-degree burn otherwise known as the year 2016. And it might just be the bright spot you’ve been looking for.
Right now, it seems the entire country — or make that the world — is engaged in a brutal dialogue about race, religion, and the perpetual tug-of-war between “us” and “them.” I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted over it all.
But then, as I was having my morning coffee and debating whether or not to click through any one of the million Doomsday-esque stories on Facebook, this popped up on my newsfeed and stopped me in my tracks:
You guys, I love EVERYTHING about this commercial. I love that Amazon took a huge risk by creating an ad that shows the friendship between a Muslim Imam and Catholic priest. I love that Amazon cast an actual Vicar (Rev. Gary Bradley of Little Venice) and a Muslim school principal (Zubeir Hassem of Leicestershire), adding authenticity to the message. I love that they’re sitting with each other, drinking hot tea. And I SO love that it shows the elderly using technology, because that’s always surprisingly sweet to see.
The commercial shows the two religious leaders meeting at the priest’s home to share a cup of tea, some laughter, and commiserate about their mutual knee aches. It doesn’t take an astute observer to see the similarity in how the two men pray to their Maker. But once they depart, each suddenly has the same idea: to send the other something to help with their knee pains.
By the end, we see both men at their respective places of worship, kneeling for prayer with the help of gifted kneepads.
After watching it through, a quote by the poet Hafez immediately came to my mind:
I am in love with every church
And mosque
And temple
And any kind of shrine.
Because I know it is there
That people say the different names
Of the One God.
Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year is apparently post-truth — an adjective defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” And while that certainly seems fitting, I think the runner up should be xenophobia — an intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries [insert “loudly crying face emoji” here].
I know this isn’t the everyday reality for many Americans, but for millions of us — including me, and my own Muslim family — it is. At least, it is now. In my 32 years as an American, I have never seen my foreignness reflected so clearly in the faces of others as I have this past year. My mother, who happens to wear a hijab, has never had a random white guy scream at her in the middle of the day at a Macy’s located in the most diverse county in America.
Until last week.
So yeah, it got heavy really quick there while I was watching this. But that’s precisely why this commercial stuck a chord with so many people. I recognized my America in it, as well. In this bleak season of Armageddon-like anticipation, it was a gentle reminder that this was the world I grew up in. There were dozens upon dozens of people from different races, cultures, and religions that have helped shape my personal history.
Amazon’s commercial illustrated the ease with which we can all cultivate interfaith compassion. It also managed to give a boost to my own unexceptional levels of hope for 2017 — and that, I have to admit, is really saying something.