9/11

Dear Evie,

It's your Grampa's (your Daddy's dad's) birthday today.  It's also the 12th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center, a day commonly referred to as 9/11.  I don't know if by the time you read this they will have turned this day into a national holiday or if it will have gone the way of D-Day, which people sort of remember but with which most people don't have a strong personal association.  Regardless, let me give you a snapshot of what's happening on 9/11/2013.

Facebook (a social media website where people can post any kind of thought that comes into their heads and have it shared with anyone who is subscribed to their activity feed) is abuzz with people recounting where they were when the planes hit the towers, who they were with and how they felt, or with people posting images of the American flag superimposed over an image of the Twin Towers, boasting, "Proud to be an American", or with people lamenting the state of the nation and/or world where there seems to be so much terror, grief, and heartache that didn't exist before.  It's this last group of people that I feel simultaneously sorry for and sick of.

This world is beautiful.  There are so many sites to see, from the wonder of the flowers in your own garden to the majesty of mountains in far away places.  And we live in a country that makes it possible for most of us to have wonderful things to do.  The simple joy of having a water heater that allows you to take a hot bath, or the ability to get on a plane and visit friends you haven't seen in a while - these are things that we have in first world countries where we take privilege for granted every day.  And the people in this world...  There are so many, many wonderful people in it.  You are blessed to be related to so many of those wonderful people, and to have friends of the family who are equally wonderful.  And I don't doubt that in your journey through life, you will meet and befriend some amazing people yourself.

Most people are good.  Most people want what's best for their loved ones and for humanity at large.  Most people feel compelled to do something for someone else at some point in their lives simply because it will make that other person's life better.  People generally love and want to be loved and they truly care about others.  When people don't act that way, when they mistreat someone else, we find it so odd and strange that it becomes news.  And when we see news story after news story about this odd and strange behavior of not loving others and doing things to hurt others, we overgeneralize to think that it is more of the norm than it really is.  And we make broad, sweeping statements about how the times sure have changed, and back in my day we didn't do things like this.

People have been doing terrible things to other people since the dawn of time; we just didn't hear about it as much or as loudly.  There is nothing about 2013 that is worse than any other time in history, with regard to people's intent towards one another.  If anything, living in a first world society that provides most of the needs people have, we have significantly more people caring about others because they don't have to spend quite as much energy and effort trying to provide for themselves.  We have more time to hang out with the family, to engage in activities we enjoy together, to donate time and funds to causes that are important to us which are often causes that help people outside of ourselves.

The reason I'm writing this letter to you is because I want you to know, I would never have brought you into a world that was as hopeless as some people make it out to be.  Probably when you read this, people will still be saying the same things regarding how terrible a place this world has become.  It must be exhausting and sad to have that point of view, to spend so much time idealizing a time period that never existed that you can't enjoy the present.

Evie, the world is not perfect.  But it never has been.  Please, let the good always impress you more than the bad.  Let the kind acts of others stick with you longer than the mean ones.  Count the blessings, not the disappointments.  Look only for the good.  You won't have to look far.

Love,
Mama