Is the Sky Falling?
I’m not sure about that, but the world seems to be on fire. At least from what I can see.
I just saw something I posted on Facebook after the 2016 Nice truck attack—when a man drove a 19-ton cargo truck intentionally into the crowds celebrating Bastille Day, killing 86 people and injuring 458 others:
“I saw a photo this morning of a child’s covered body on the Promenade des Anglais. Alongside this baby doll was her baby doll. Things seem to be getting worse by the day. The world-sky is getting darker. The bad stuff is spreading, exponentially. We are losing good people and baby dolls. Terrorism, race wars, ugly politics. It’s a tiny thing, maybe, but if we can just take who we touch today—at our office, in the store, on the freeway, in our homes, and put more love into them, maybe try a little harder in the little moments…I wonder if that light will change the dark. Exponentially. Gonna try it.”
That was over two years ago and I don’t know about you, but to me, things seem to have gotten worse. I’m not trying to be “Chicken Little” here, but guys, something has to change. Our words and our our actions need to change. We need a heart-change. Heart—words—actions.
Can we count on our nation’s leaders to love first—then speak, think and act? Doesn’t look like it. Or is that just a stupid question? Perhaps we have to show them how to do it. If our highest elected officials routinely go lower than we’d imagined, we must go higher, we must be the teachers.
We must be the leaders.
We must raise our voices and lift our arms toward the heavens.
I imagine the thousand upon endless thousands of tears in Thousand Oaks this week. I watched our local L.A. news, and heard the audible cries of a father who lost his son and I bawled, too. I saw a mother rage about her son who was a survivor of the Las Vegas shooting last year but was killed this week in Thousand Oaks. She raised her voice outside her home and pleaded with anyone who would listen. She doesn’t want words of comfort anymore, she wants action.
I don’t know where else to begin but with me. It’s a tiny thing, maybe, but if we can just take who we touch today—at our office, in the store, on the freeway, in our homes, and put more love into them, maybe try a little harder in the little moments…I wonder if that light will change the dark. Exponentially. Gonna try it.
We have to try and hold up the sky. For our baby dolls.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.—Martin Luther King, Jr.