What do I tell my kids?
I tell my kids
the good guys always win.
It helps them relax and enjoy
when mild peril in movies
feels a little too real.
When Kevin is left home alone,
And the Wet Bandits are breaking in,
My kids reassure each other
the bad guys will lose.
Mom and Dad will come back.
The kid will be safe.
What do I tell my kids
when the flag over their school
flies at half-staff?
A silent, sickening reminder
kids just like them were killed yesterday.
How can I relax and enjoy
while living in a country
where the bad guys not only win
but are making laws
allowing any ordinary person
to buy a weapon of war?
And “nothing can be done”
to keep our children safe.
© 2023 Naomi Krueger
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Thanks for the thought, Naomi.
As for me - and this probably won't be a big surprise - the only comfort can come from recognizing what next Friday is; from the feeling that the bad guys DO win sometimes, but that their victory is not final. That Good Friday is followed by Easter Sunday. That, even though it sounds like a platitude, it isn't, because the pain of crucifixion is real, and the sorrow of death is real and the heartsickness of grief is real and the emptiness of Holy Saturday is real. And that, of course - and there's a better way to phrase it than this, I'm sure - that humans have been dicks forever.
But there IS - somewhere, somewhere deep and hard and grace-filled - a reason to have hope, nonetheless. And that hope is all the more audacious and hard and gratifying because it is present in these moments of utter sorrow.
Love is hard when violence is around. Faith is hard when there's naught but reasons to doubt. Hope is hard when things to be spiraling out of control. But the defiance of those three - of faith, hope, and love - only have meaning if we do them, EVEN WHEN we see the pain, the horror, the sorrow, the death.
It's the answer that works for me, anyway. It might not be the only one. But I don't know another that can help me through the reality of the world around us.
Blessings to you and yours, and thank you for sharing.