Walking Cross-Town. With little ones.

~ Live & Learn


3:30 a.m. yesterday. Saw this photo and froze.

This THIS is the world our children live in today.

Look at her. Those eyes. Those little shoes.

Precious is tucked in close to Dad who is buying tickets for the show.

And then the scene darkens, a conjoining of rivers with Catherine Abbey Hodges’ closing lines in “How to Begin“: “You’re a strand of dark thread sticking a word to a river. Then another.”

Manchester. 22 dead. Women, children, soft targets. UK terror threat raised to Critical. 1000 troops deployed.

Dear Ms. Hodges, is the question How to Begin?

Or is it, How does it end?

23 year old Richard Collins, a young black student, scheduled to graduate this week, was standing with friends at a bus stop waiting for a Uber.  He was fatally stabbed in the chest with a 4-inch knife blade. The attacker, another student, is a member of an “Alt-Reich” group. In court, as prosecutors read the charges, the attacker’s father closed his eyes, his mother covered her face. Friends remember Collins as a “kind soul.”  Collins’ Father and Mother? In shock. Richard – Gone.

A weather alert pops up on my app. “Coastal Flood Advisory. Light rain through evening.”

That THAT is exactly what we need. A big global cleansing. A Big Rain to polish up this Big Rock, restore the luster and perspective of all its inhabitants, and bring back the sheen.

It 3:30 am, 24 hours later.

It’s still raining.

And we’re still stuck in Kyo Maclear’s “mongrel space between hope and despair.”

Notes:

 

31 thoughts on “Walking Cross-Town. With little ones.”

  2. I wake with dread…what new horror will greet the sun. I’m not prepared to go down without a fight. I believe the pendulum keeps swinging, and pray this is as high as the nightmare can swing. Time to swing back, swing back, please….

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  6. You’ve nailed it, my friend. I have ALWAYS believed that kindness, respect, love would be the prevailing ethos of humankind. Cleansing….yes. Please, YES.
    Thank you for these words, David🙏

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  7. Couldn’t agree more, pal. Every morning I open my news feed with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. What’s it going to be today–a shooting, a stabbing, a bombing, or a pointless act of incivility that just drags us further down the rat hole. I like to think — no, I WANT to think — that love and kindness will prevail, but damn it’s getting harder and harder to find those stories. Praying that we can take a step back and realize that ultimately, whatever the color of our skin, our sexual persuasion, our religion, we are all in this TOGETHER.

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  9. and every photo of a child: in a refugee camp, a war zone, one living in poverty, one living in abuse, neglect, one held in sexual slavery, one standing amid the aftermath of a natural disaster, an accident scene, children working when they should be going to school and playing…all have had their innocence shattered… there are so many situations around the world to pray about…and yes Let The Rain Fall, scrubbing away the evil and bringing forth an emergence of blooming, care, kindness, understanding, respect and Love…(I think of the haunting, depression era photos of D. Lange, the hallow faced children, the naked child and other children running, fleeing from the Napalm attacks)…the inhumanity increases …and pray for an end to the bloodshed and stay strong in hope for a global unity of peace…

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  10. The origin of all this is hate. Too much of it around right now. Too much of ‘us’ versus ‘them’. If we can change that, we have some hope of better times.

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      1. This is how I see it. It may, in some cases, initially be hopelessness, but only when it turns into hate for whatever reason, will it result in violent behavior towards others. It may be a simplistic view, but I have witnessed hopelessness that has not lead to blind violence towards others.

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  13. This afternoon as my daughter and went about our day taking care of errands…I notice so many children with a parent, carefree, innocent and darling and I thought of how quickly the everyday life can be forever, devastatingly altered…I don’t like the new normal that some people have been forced to live… under armed protectors….///recently there was a strong police presence in our area(multiple law enforcement agencies)…a man hunt, roads closed we could see the police blockage about 500 ft away…we were supposed to reach a reserve 911 called since we live within 2 miles of the situation and we never rec’d the call…which was reported to have said stay indoors with your doors and windows locked and do not open your door if a man comes to it, Call us immediately… they didn’t catch him, we were thankful for their quick action…

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  15. With all the daily news and the craziness, nothing, and I mean nothing got to me as much as seeing you like this. You reminded me of the statue of The Weeping Angel in New Orleans. We’re no angels, but people like you, warriors of light, are evenly distributed through out the world to prevent the world from caving in. They are our last hope.

    And, Lightly…
    How “Lightly” can you dance your warrior dance?”

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