Teddy Allen Published 10:18 a.m. CT July 3, 2020

Times columnist Teddy Allen mug(Photo: Val Horvath/The Times)

Tell you whos making a financial killing during the global pandemic: people who know sign language. Professional sign language interpreters.

Cha-ching!

If youre a governor or a congressman or a mayor, giving news conferences all the time during these pandemic days, youve got to have a sign language interpreter. I love them. The official is behind a lectern talking, a recipe for boring. But the beauty of the news conference is that the interpreter looks like a member of Gladys Knights Pips, performing in scripted movements that add not only words to our brothers and sisters who are deaf, but also soul, something we need now. Feeling. An authentic realness.

Thank goodness for them.

The other day during the Houston mayors news conference there were two interpreters, once signing in Spanish, the other in English. Never seen that before.

I started to write todays effort in sign language, but that would have to be a video. Besides, like most of you, I dont know how. Wish I did, and I need to learn so I can communicate better with our deaf friends.

At first I thought that maybe sign language was universal. The sign for house or dog would be the same in English as it is in French, youd think. But the words are different, and sometimes sign language interpreters have to spell out things. So according to employment marketplace company Zip Recruiter, there are 300-plus sign languages. And if you know how to share one in the United States, you can pocket up to 30 bucks an hour thats in New York, the top of the sign language interpreter ladder if youre going by states or, if youre interpreting in Louisiana, $25.48 an hour.

I heard that!

Its from a kind heart that these interpreters learned how to do that. And thats the message of todays effort: kindness, the universal language. We need more of it these days as we all find our way, together, through the global pandemic. Maybe if each of us made it our mission to perform just one act of kindness each day, it would take the edge off some of the tenseness that 100-plus days of living with COVID-19 and targeted unkindness has brought.

A couple of my best buds wont wear a mask when they go to the grocery store, and I cant talk them into it. But wearing a mask nowadays is another universal language. It says I am taking one more step toward protecting you. Granted, it might be easier for me because several people have told me I look better in a mask than without one. I plan to keep wearing it after the pandemic. Plus people have been social distancing from me for several years now. So maybe its easier for me since I was apparently built for a pandemic. But really, how hard can wearing a mask for maybe 20 minutes every few days be?

Kindness matters. One of my bosses has sent me two thank you notes during the past 14 weeks. Handwritten. Who does that these days?

Another boss sent me a note asking me to send in todays effort a day early because of the July 4 holiday and began with an apology: Sorry to press you, and ended with an apology: Thanks and sorry about the change. Kindness, even when I should have thought to send this in a day early since Ive been doing it for 40 years.

Another couple dropped off cinnamon rolls to us and our little group of friends one day. Drove home to home making front door deliveries. A little thing, but a big thing.

In the grocery line, the guy behind me had a Diet Coke. Thats it. I said to him, Please let me buy that for you; I havent done anything nice for anybody all day. He smiled and accepted. And as I was walking out, he handed me two bucks. Pay it forward, he said. Thank you again. And he was gone. But not forgotten.

Most of us dont understand sign language, but all of us understand kind language. It changes people. And we can all speak it if we think a little more of others, and a little less of ourselves.

So put your Kind, Happy, Golden Rule Pandemic Face on. And put a mask on over it.

Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu

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