I'm not sure why I'm so fixated on these stories.
Another one hit the media stream this week.
Fear. Distrust. Jealousy. Anger. Rage. Meanness. Inexperience. Faulty thinking. Hopelessness. All mixed together with the immediacy, seeming anonymity, and enduring nature of technology, what we end up with is a society that can neither understand nor protect its own privacy.
I don't think I can comment on these individual cases anymore. I can only express sadness for such a senseless waste of life.
And while I'm opposed to laws that make "bullying" a crime, I'm not opposed to trying to prevail to humankind's better nature.
As soon as they get into school, kids start seeing differences in each other. They have their likes, dislikes, frustrations, irritations. They start to feel the pain as well as the power of exclusion.
These days, as I visit the classroom and meet my kids new friends, I can't help but look at their faces -- some laughing and smiling, others startled, worried or homesick -- and want to hug each and every one.
What is it that I need to teach my kids? Certainly they can't be friends with everyone. We all know we have our limits of patience and tolerance ... They won't be able to make everyone happy. No one will be able to make them happy, it has to come from within.
But we don't have to make another person's life harder. We may not be able to make everyone's life easier, but that doesn't mean we have to make anyone's life harder.
1 comment:
I was really knocked flat by the Tyler Clementi suicide, and ditto the others that have happened in a plague of late. A friend of mine commented, specifically to the Clementi case, how sad it is that college campuses have to hold what are essentially clinics on tolerance and kindness. Which points directly back to us, as parents. We have an awesome charge, and a lot relies upon what we do. I could go on and on. So, I feel you. For sure.
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