Wednesday, December 13, 2017

I have before and will do so again

I have posted on serious subjects before and most likely will again. I try to stick to my "theme" of lighten-up on this blog but since life often fails to go by lightly, happily, gently I occasionally post serious thoughts.

Cultures have celebrations in remembrance of good events. Sometimes these good events came out of bad events. Our Christmas season celebrates joy, peace, goodwill. Certainly if everyone was following along there would be no violence during this season of peace. But we know it doesn't work that way.









We are born innocent. Fortunately most children in first world countries remain innocent for the first few years of their lives. Even in some third world countries many young children don't see violence. I don't know at what age one should learn the world is not always a lovely peaceful place. I think by age 20 one should know. I don't believe a violent threatening world should be experienced by a child. The trauma could lead to a later cycle of violence by the afflicted child. We know violence can spread. Love and kindness also spreads. Love and kindness can be seen in the aid offered to victims after tragedies.

Old news - December 14, 2012- A horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary left 20 children, 6- and 7-year-olds, and six educators gunned down by a troubled 20-year-old.

There are no complete perfect fixes for our violent world. Instead of searching and waiting for some perfect solution we should strive today, now, to improve our situation by reducing the violence.

Today by way of a song I came across a group dedicated to improving the school situation. The group is called Sandy Hook Promise. They offer free training to schools and youth programs to educate students about recognizing early signs of violence.

The song that lead me to this group was "The Dreaming Kind" by Sheryl Crow. She wrote the song after the recent Las Vegas shooting. She decided to give the song to the Sandy Hook Promise as a vehicle to raise money. I made small donation for the song download. The Sandy Hook Promise has the links and information for making donations. The song starts with these lines:

I turned off the news again tonite
It’s getting hard to watch everyone fight
Every time I turn my face
I see the world from outer space
How small we are but look how much we have to waste





I don't see this so-called "war" on Christmas. I see a "war" on joy, peace and goodwill. Another Sheryl Crow song (about 10 years ago) suggests that we need to get out of our heads and into our hearts.




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