Recent Events
I haven’t posted in a long time. Been busy making Christmas gifts – photos of which I will post after Christmas. The past week I’ve spent being angry at a system in which a mentally disturbed person can get their hands on a legally-purchased semi-automatic military style weapon and end the lives of 20 children and 6 adults in an elementary school for a reason apparent to no one except the killer. I don’t use the term “suspected shooter” as the media does. He was a killer. In addition to the school teachers and their pupils, he also killed his mother, the owner of the legal rifle.
In my rantings and ravings against the sale of the above-mentioned weapons, I’ve upset family members with other thoughts on the subject. For that, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the distance between us now, not for my opinion. They are entitled to their opinions as well. You start off posting your thoughts on the subject, you receive a response in opposition to your opinion and you answer it. Suddenly, it’s escalated to a point where neither of you wants to see the other in print again. For that, I grieve. Perhaps the best thing to do is to ignore a post that you don’t agree with - social media is for people to share what’s important to them. If you don’t agree with it, ignore it. I promise to do my best to do this in the future.
The news in the last week has driven me into a deep depression like I haven’t experienced in a while. Today – I feel somewhat rejuvenated. I attended the holiday recital at my grandson’s preschool. They were a chorus of angels. I found myself smiling again.
The lost children of Newtown CT and their families deserve our prayers and shouldn’t stray far from our hearts. But our children and grandchildren, full of life, should be in the forefront. They should be hugged and squeezed, have attention lavished upon them and should be appreciated for the joy they carry within and they joy they share with us.
I'm not going to post any comments about the Newtown shootings. I will say though that new forms of media communication have made it much easier to start family fueds. I can't speak for your family, but I know in mine people text, email, FB, and say all kinds of things electronically that they wouldn't say in person and create major family wars that never would have occured if they just decided not to respond to comments that they know will not create a great discussion, but will result in open warfare. I know in my family some enjoy the wars. We have several "fire starters" who troll people's websites, blogs, FB pages, and other forms of open communications looking for trouble. However, as I have told many who have come to me, you know they are looking for trouble, you don't have to give it to them.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has a right to free speech. It is one of the greatest gifts of our founding fathers. How we use that gift with your family and friends is up to each one of us. We know with some of our family and friends that engaging in a comment battle will not change hearts and minds on the issue we are debating, but it may result in hurts far greater that are not easily repaired.
For that reason I have very limited electronic contact with family. If they wanted to track down the websites where I discuss political or social views I'm sure they could, but I don't openly invite them into my world to do so because nothing good comes of it. After years of holiday table discussions, I know minds and hearts are not going to be changed.
So true - thanks for your comment. I have decided to try to steer away from things that may cause problems. For instance, at our family holiday celebration, I sat down at a table and within 5 minutes, the conversation steered in a direction I would rather have avoided. So I got up and moved to join my son and daughter-in-law so as not to be drawn into something.
ReplyDeleteDH and I have a signal we have dubbed those "How about them Red Sox" conversation changers for our house. When the conversations get hot, we find a way to change the subject, because no good comes of certain topics. People have strong beliefs and while people cling to the idea that just one more argument will change the other person's mind it rarely happens. Instead it mostly hardens the other person's heart and ends up creating empty seats at the holiday tables.
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