Friday, December 14, 2012

Dear Graham, In the Wake of Tragedy

Dear Graham,
This isn't a normal one of your monthly letters. Instead it's one that is about a life experience that I hope you never have to endure, and yet I know you will. It's one of grief for your fellow humans, raw sadness and such emotional, disappointed despair.

While you may never read about this in a history book like you will Pearl Harbor or September 11, today at least 20 children were murdered in a mass school shooting. This is nothing a two-year old could comprehend. In fact, it's nothing your 32-year-old mommy can comprehend.

So, why do I write you about such a horrific event?

It's because it's so easy to take this event and think it defines us. It's because we can be so quick to harness the negative and believe that it is our future. It's because it is so horrific that it's hard to take its senselessness and believe that it's just that: senseless.

I write to tell you that this is not how you have to choose for your world to be defined. As I rubbed your back in your crib tonight with tears rolling off my cheeks and onto your blanket, I have such hope for you.  Just like one person can cause an event that can bring a nation to its knees like we have today, another one person can be a beacon of hope, joy and love.

In light of something as horrific as we are experiencing today, it's easy to think one person can't possibly make enough of a difference to compensate for this type of destruction. And maybe that's true. But while one person can't, 10 people can. Or 1,000 people can. Or 1 million people can. And together, in that unity of service, compassion and respect for our fellow human beings, positive things can happen.

The future can be bright.

I write to you to ask you to be one of those 10. Or 1,000. Or 1 million. Because the good works of one can multiply in ways you never believed possible and send ripples of blessings through a society that is in need of that hope.

Love,
Mommy


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