Hi Kids!
While at this point in my life I am nowhere near ready to meet you, I have been thinking a lot about you lately. This may be due, in part, to the fact that Halloween is right around the corner and Target has really outdone themselves on the cuteness scale with children’s costumes this year. But I think it probably has more to do with the state of the world we are living in, a world that you all will one day live in. Unfortunately, some really bad stuff is happening right now & I feel like you deserve an explanation.
You see sometimes really bad people do really bad things to really good people, and as much as we try to make sense of why these bad things happen we can’t. About a week ago, a very bad man killed and injured a lot of very good, innocent people who were singing and dancing at a country music concert. This isn’t the first time really bad people have killed innocent people in our country for absolutely no reason. Sometimes they kill people having a fun night out, or students who are learning at school, or people who are enjoying a movie at a theater, or people who are eating dinner with their families at a restaurant, or at a lot of other places where people are just living their lives.
I know this is probably really scary for you to hear, and if I’m being honest it’s really scary for me to have to tell you. Sometimes I watch the news or I read articles about the things that are happening in our country & I wonder if there will ever be a day when you won’t have to be afraid anymore. I wish I had an explanation for you as to why these bad things happen. I wish I had an explanation for you as to why, at a time when this country is screaming for unity and love, we are more divided and hateful towards each other than ever before. I wish I had an explanation for you as to why our world is the way that it is. But unfortunately, I don’t. I don’t know why bad people do bad things to good people. I don’t know why hatred seems so much more prominent than love. And I definitely don’t know why, or how, or when things in our country became so bad.
There is one thing I do know though. I know that when that really bad man killed and injured all those really good people at that country music concert, hundreds of firefighters, police officers, paramedics, other first responders and most incredibly, regular civilians, shielded people they didn’t even know from bullets, treated those who had been shot and carried those who had been killed away from the scene until the early morning hours of the next day. I know that when bad people came to schools, teachers risked their lives to protect their students. I know that when areas of our country have been destroyed by hurricanes, tornados, fires, earthquakes and other natural disasters thousands of Americans came together to offer food, clothing, shelter and medical aid to people they didn’t know who had lost everything. Most importantly though, I know that no matter how hard they try, the really bad people and the really bad things will never outnumber the really good people and the really good things.
I know that things are scary and there is so much to be afraid of, but I promise you this: not once has hatred ever won over love. Love, compassion, kindness, good people with helping hands and light wins every single time. And all of those things are what the world needs more of.
As much as I would like to promise you a world without fear, pain and tragedy, I can’t do that. What I can do, is promise you that I will do everything in my power to spread love and kindness to whomever I meet, where ever I go. I promise to look for the best in others, even when it’s hard to do. I promise to offer a helping hand to people who need it. I promise to respect the opinions of others, even when I don’t agree with them. I promise to choose acceptance over judgement. I promise to choose hope over fear. I promise to choose love over hate. And most importantly, I promise to do my part to make the world a better place because even though I don’t know you yet, I know that you deserve a better world than the one we have today.
You have my word kiddos, promise I won’t let you down.
Mom