We are stronger, kinder and better than this
What a difference seven days can make. Last week, in my column, I attempted to be upbeat, trying to paint a picture where possibilities were limitless.
Today, I know I'm supposed to be the optimistic guy who helps turn that frown upside down. But to be honest. I. Just. Can't. It's not time. It will return, but not today.
I have continued to believe that we will find our way through the morass in which we find ourselves. I trust that people of good intention will create bridges and pathways toward each other instead of building walls to block one another out. I hold hope high that the horrific, unnecessary, terrorist act perpetrated on the innocent people of Ukraine by Putin will end, showing the populations of Earth that war brings no victors, while cooperation must be the process of the future. My inner self keeps true to the thought that we will look at COVID-19 as a dreadful episode in our history that illuminated brightly how important is self-care, education, cooperation and a thriving health care system. I have to believe that we will not extinct ourselves by over-heating and polluting Mother Earth; that technology and lifestyle adjustments will save us. After all, I have been raised to believe that the greatest good will find its way through any barrier. I cannot — must not — let go of that.
Yet, right now, those hopeful thoughts feel like delicate cloud-like wisps torn apart in a gale. I'm attempting to hold with clenched fists to them, but one cannot grasp vapor, no matter how hard they try.
As I write this, the shooting deaths of 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Texas is unfolding. Social media is aflame with opinions. News media have swarmed the small town 85 miles from San Antonio. Names and photographs of the 10-year-old victims are starting to make themselves known. And, of course, we have not yet even finished with the funerals of the victims in Buffalo, New York, or the church in Southern California.
When the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, took place in 2012, shredding the lives of 26 people, including 20 victims between the ages of 6 and 7, the shock and horror brought me to tears. Any murder is wrong; the slaughter of children is unimaginable. I cannot picture how the families and parents of these young ones are holding up. Moreover, I cannot allow myself to even try. I'm not sure I could re-surface. I was convinced that we had hit rock bottom. Change would make itself manifest.
I was wrong, for here we are yet again.
I have strong opinions and I don't shirk from them. That said, this is not the place for them; join me on social media for those — or better yet, call your representatives with your own. Make known your voice — loudly. Vote for what you believe. Do not accept that our leaders are powerless and that this is normal, throwing in the towel and wiping your hands of responsibility. There is nothing anywhere near “normal” in the number of mass murders infecting our country. Viruses hold nothing compared to the devastation of public shootings plaguing this land.
While now is time for action, it is — as importantly — a time for grieving. We are not made to absorb this much loss so quickly; that is not how we are designed. The awfulness we witness takes its toll on our individual and collective psyches. Despite the anger, shock and fear we each share with the victims' families, we must stand fast against allowing it to coarsen us still further. It is that hardening, the continued labeling of “us” versus “them” that is the catalyst for the shootings. One will not harm an “us,” only a “them.” We must seek out and develop more “us.”
Grieve. Be livid. Beat on your pillow. Cry and scream into the void. Don't deny how you feel. But, under no circumstances accept that this is the “new normal” and it must be accepted. We are not helpless. It must not be allowed to define us. We are stronger, kinder and better than this. Scott “Q” Marcus is the CRP (Chief Recovering Perfectionist) of www. Thistimeimeanit. com and the founder of the inspirational Facebook Group, Intentions Affirmations Manifestations. Join his free online semi-monthly motivation sessions by signing up for his free semi-monthly newsletter at www.thistimeimeanit. com/signup.