Friday, July 8, 2016

The Next Generation


I wish the world could look like this.

I wish both my sons would be viewed and respected in the same way as they walk down the street and enter into adulthood.

I know they will not.

I pray for this hurting world.

I pray for officers who are scared and reacting too quickly.

I pray for officers who are corrupt.

I pray for officers who are protecting all lives.

I pray for scared mothers raising their sons.

I pray for black fathers losing their lives.

I pray for the families of Alton Sterling, and Philando Castile.

I pray for all the families. Every family. Everywhere. Living in this crazy world.

I pray for myself and my part in this. Because like it or not, we all play a part in this.

I pray for this senseless division to end.

My heart is so heavy with images and stories that I can't get out of my head.

My heart is even heavier as I try to understand and admit that I have no idea how to raise my ten year old black son in a world that is so different than the one I lived in as a white privileged child.

I feel helpless.

I feel hopeless. 


But then I look at my children and their best friends.

And I feel a tiny little spark: a shred of hope that maybe, just maybe, their generation can start to fix what our generation and the generations before us have so unequivocally and epically EFFED up beyond recognition. 

As I kiss their sweet little heads tonight and tuck their long limbs into their beds, I pray for them to get some good rest. 

They have a long, long, long, long journey ahead of them.