A Wasp on the Elevator

My son and I were hurrying to an appointment, and the parking garage was packed. We snagged a spot on the top level of the garage and walked over to the elevator.

I don’t always have much faith in elevators, and I would prefer to take the stairs, but we were in a rush, and it seemed like a trek on all the steps. So I pressed the button, waited for the ding, and climbed aboard.

A couple who looked like they were about my parents’ age followed us on, along with a young woman, who was chatting with a friend on the phone.

Just as the elevator doors were about to close, a wasp flew inside.

My son and I saw it right away—and so did the young woman. And I had no desire to ride an elevator with a wasp. That might go fine, or it might not go fine. But I stuck my arm out to keep the elevator door open in the hopes the wasp would leave and we could get away wasp-free.

The older couple with us, though, didn’t see the wasp. So, the whole situation had to seem odd. They were politely asking for their floor, while the rest of us initially seemed to be unable to find words to convey our concern about the wasp. It only took a few minutes for them to realize what was happening, and then we were all focused on that wasp.

Eventually, the wasp flew out, and I tried to let the doors close, and then it flew back in, and I scrambled to hit “Door Close” so we could get away.

Ultimately, it worked, and we left the wasp on the top level of the garage as we headed down to our appointments. I don’t know any of their names, and I will probably never see them again, but for just a few minutes, we were united in a single experience—a team working together, just trying to stay safe and unstung.

Later, as we rode the elevator back to our car, I was thinking about how something as small as a wasp can bring people together. We were like a little unarmed army facing the wasp, trying to figure out how to get it out of the elevator while keeping each other safe. Such a tiny moment, but still a moment of connection.

I really value small moments when we remember that we are here for one another, and that we want what’s best for those around us—whether they’re people we know well or people we don’t know at all. We are here for them, and they are here for us. Sometimes it just takes a shared experience to realize that.

I felt that at my son’s high school graduation on Saturday, too. The people sitting near us who were strangers at the start of the ceremony became friends. I may not have known their sons before the ceremony, but I was excited for them and thrilled to hear their names read as they received their diplomas. Their story and ours will always be intertwined in some way as I remember that beautiful celebration.

“We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other,” Dorothy Day said. “We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.”

I hope you’ll experience that gift of companionship today, or maybe even have a moment to create it yourself. May you never be stuck on an elevator with a wasp—and, if you are, may you be with people as kind and concerned about one another as the people we met the other day.

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