As I sit down to write this, my city is preparing to host its 47th marathon.

Which means my daily runs along Lake Michigan are made even more beautiful, more hopeful, more perspective-inducing by the presence of runners hailing from around the world — all different languages, all different paces, all different cultures. Keeping their legs loose, adjusting to the climate, adjusting to the time zone, taking in the sights. (They almost all pause for a skyline selfie.)

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon is one of seven World Major Marathons, so it consistently attracts runners from more than 100 countries and all 50 states. The course has produced six world records.

The year I ran it, 2023, I heard languages I recognized and languages I didn’t. Tears and sweat and running over to hug your people when you spot them among the 1.7 million (roughly) spectators all happen in the same language. But “keep going” doesn’t. “I’m so proud of you” doesn’t. “I can’t believe you talked me into this” doesn’t.

In addition to hosting athletes and their loved ones from around the world, Chicago’s marathon winds through 29 culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhoods. You get Chinese lion dancers around mile 21 and mariachi bands in Pilsen and a Tina Turner drag performance in Northalsted and basically everything that makes Chicago vibrant and rich and proud.

For a day, people from everywhere cheer for people from everywhere.

For a day, we witness each other’s joy and setbacks and triumphs and injuries and records broken and dreams realized and hopes dashed.

For a day, strangers make space for each other, even if it’s a little crowded and loud and complicated.

We have it in us.

As I sit down to write this, my city is also preparing for the Texas National Guard, which arrived Oct. 7 in spite of repeated objections of Illinois officials. The troops join Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and federal Border Patrol officers, who are here to spearhead President Donald Trump’s "Operation Midway Blitz," aimed at rounding up immigrants.

Families are being arrested and torn apart. U.S. citizens are being detained. A homeowner in suburban Naperville told ABC 7 news about agents with guns surrounding his home to target and arrest the crew installing his new roof. Residents of a South Shore apartment complex are living among broken windows and blood-soaked debris and plywood-covered doors after a middle-of-the-night, military-style raid.

“Pertissue Fisher is still recovering from being detained by federal immigration agents who burst into her South Shore apartment building and pulled her and other residents from their beds,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported. “An agent put a gun in her face, she said. Another placed her in handcuffs tight enough to leave bruises. Fisher and other victims of the raid are U.S. citizens, but they were still held for hours.”

At an ICE facility in suburban Broadview, protestors — including clergy members — are being tear-gassed and shot with pepper balls.

“Despite the danger, religious leaders and faith activists have been a visible presence at the protests, some waving signs with slogans such as ‘Love thy neighbor’ and ‘Who would Jesus deport?’” Religion News Service reported. “Many argue they are compelled by their religious beliefs to advocate for immigrants, but as officers continue to respond with violence, some claim their religious freedom is increasingly at risk — even, they say, as they pray for the souls of ICE agents.”

“One of the chants that has become ubiquitous at these protests at Broadview is, ‘Love your neighbor, love your God, save your soul and quit your job,’” the Rev. David Black, a minister at the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, told a reporter. “Everybody chants that.”

A photo of Black being sprayed in the face with a chemical agent, captured by Sun-Times photographer Ashlee Rezin, has gone viral.

There’s a parable about the two wolves that live inside each of us. You’ve probably heard it. One wolf is good, embodying love, peace and empathy. The other is bad, nudging us toward anger, greed and fear. They’re always fighting each other, a wise person tells a young listener.

“Which one wins?” the young listener asks. The wise person answers:

“The one you feed.”

A single event like the Chicago Marathon, powerful and moving and unifying and hopeful and instructive as it is, doesn’t capture Chicago. Doesn’t capture this moment. Doesn’t capture human nature.

But neither do the arrests. Neither do the raids. Neither do the tear gas and pepper balls and guns and handcuffs and bigotry fueling it all.

We have it in us to be better than this. More loving than this. More level-headed than this. It’s not only necessary to look for and cultivate hope in this moment. It’s accurate. It’s big-picture thinking.

It’s feeding the good wolf, sure. But it’s also recognizing that the good wolf isn’t just a parable. The good wolf is a peaceful demonstrator, an immigration attorney, a community activist, a neighbor who signed up to escort someone else’s kids home from school so their parents don’t get detained, a food bank worker, a photographer who refuses to look away.

We have it in us to cheer for people from everywhere. To make room for people from everywhere. To bear witness to people from everywhere. To share each other’s joys and setbacks and triumphs and injuries and dreams. And humanity. For more than just a day.

It’s really the only way any of this will work.

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