I’m itching to see Won’t You Be My Neighbor.

Unfortunately, my only trip to the movies this week was to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and she had promised her husband that she’d see Won’t You Be My Neighbor with him.

Sooooooo…we ended up at Always at the Carlyle. It’s not a particularly well-made documentary, more of a string of interviews with (mostly) famous people talking about what makes the Manhattan hotel special.

Aside from the meandering structure, there was something that bothered me about the film on a deeper level.

Then it came to me.

Always at the Carlyle celebrates the differences among people, classes of people but individuals, too.

Quality and attention to detail are good things. Discretion can be as well, but the elitism that comes with it in this case makes a stark contrast to the days I spent recently in the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia.

These days I find myself much more interested in the similarities among people and what we can do to bring folks together.