I Want My Son’s World To Be Beautiful. Announcing a New Project #‎1000Speak‬

Humans have been and continue to be horrible to humans. Our history is of genocide, killing in the name of whatever is  seen as “right.” The murdering of children has been acceptable for thousands and thousands of years.

I used to watch the news. Today, I can barely watch the news. I can’t keep up. I don’t want to.

I want my son’s world to be beautiful.

There are days when keeping up with my little boy and his therapies and inclusions and the potential injustices he will face in his life due to developmental delays is already more than enough. While I know that it’s important to keep up with what’s going on in the world, I don’t want to. My husband, who works for the Department of Defense, does enough of that for our whole family. I asked him, retired US Army guy, for a quote. This is what he gave me:

“I’ma (gonna) get medieval on your ass”  —  Crime boss Marsellus Wallace  Pulp Fiction

Man’s willingness to commit to truly unspeakable acts upon his fellow man would seem at all time high as it’s celebrated, justified, condemned, vilified or ignored. A father throws his child off a bridge, a mother sets her baby afire, a husband beats and stabs his wife, a wife shoots her husband,  an African terror group literally wipes a villages from the face of the earth, an Islamic State is declared that seeks a return to the 7^th Century already responsible for murder and enslavement of thousands …all within the past few months. All done in name of jealousy, anger, hate, psychosis or tribe, religion, politics, power.

First world response…”the world is different than when I was growing up.” 

Or was it?  From Cain’s murder of  Abel to devastation of cities of  the ancient world where the losers were crucified , raped or enslaved, to the crusades where blood of Jerusalem citizens bathed the hooves of Christendom’s finest knights, to the Holocaust where a modern society led by a megalomaniac nearly exterminated a group of people defined by their religion,  or the killing fields of Cambodia  driven by another demented dictator…to now where beheadings, rape, torture, etc. explode all over the global information grid.

Where is the empathy and compassion for one’s fellow man….

Where, indeed? Here. In so many places…

*****

To the beauty. My step father is an artist, and he’s amazing. Yesterday, I received one of his pieces of art. It’s full of beauty and light and makes me wish that I had even a small amount of the talent that he does (and stay tuned, as he’s about to go public with his art and you’re going to want to get in on this). This photo does not do the actual piece justice.

Art, along with my son’s laughter, makes me remember that our broken world is also full of sunlight and hope. I don’t watch much of the news. I just can’t. I know that it’s important to be informed but the fact that a woman lit her baby on fire yesterday, that all of this horrible horrible is here… is just Too Much.

But. There’s something I can do. There’s something you can do too. Recently, my friend Yvonne (the one who inspired my article about Fostering Self Compassion) read an amazing post that Lizzi wrote  and came up with One Kick Ass Idea. Seriously Kick Ass.

Her idea? 1,000 voices on the same day to speak about compassion. About having a village and raising empathy and wonder.  As Lizzi said, it’s like Our Land, on speed. I’m taking part in #100Speak. 1,000 writers will post on February 20 about compassion. It’s going to be amazing. Like Iron Man amazing (for which I’m also thankful as for the first time, Tucker wanted face paint – done by a STRANGER and he wanted to KEEP it on). Big stuff.

Here’s my offer to you. If you’re a person who does not have a place to share your thoughts on compassion (or life), send me your posts on Compassion and I’ll share them here. My other offer is to Join Us. We have a Facebook group and are completely committed to making Compassion count in this messy crazy ugly world of ours that is also beautiful, full of hope, and a place where our voices matter.

#1000Speak. Our voices matter.

Your hosts: A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, The Meaning of Me, Rewritten, Thankful Me, The Wakefield Doctrine

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