Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Letters To My Children

Dear Kids,

Our world is changing.  It seems crazy the things I hear on the news.  Things that are unexpected and in unexpected places.  And I guess I'm not old enough to go around shouting, "When I was young...."  but that doesn't mean I don't think it sometimes.  So, currently there is a huge movement called Me Too and in a world of hashtags, it is a trending one.  It started with the downfall of Hollywood movie producers, it surfaced in our last Presidential Elections, although no movement had been officially organized yet.  Then today I saw an article referencing the same allegations of sexual assault, commonly the theme in this movement is men in power preying upon women subordinate, within our church - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  And although I realized that our religion is filled with imperfect people acting in imperfect ways, it still crushed me to realize that these predators are smart, they are hidden in plain sight, they are in positions of power everywhere.

Some time ago, I heard Ben Shapiro, conservative political commentator, talking about why this seems to be a pandemic currently and the circumstances that got us here.  He made some comment generally about how if you have to teach your son not to rape someone, you probably already know have bigger problems.  I listened agreeing.  But as this topic surfaces and surfaces, I realized maybe, just maybe, we do need to teach them that very thing.  We need to implicitly say this to not only boys but similar messages to girls. 

So just to cover my bases:  Kids, never rape or abuse someone!  But you know what, just like I parent for best case scenario and try to encourage you with positives instead of negatives, what I actually want you to do is this:
  • "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" - Golden Rule
    • Crazy how this Biblical Concept (Matthew) has been around for a couple millennia and we still aptly need it as much as ever.
Remember that everyone is a child of God.  You will some day be accountable to Him for how you treated his other children in this life.  That day can be a scary reckoning or one of joyful celebration.  Choose the party you want to attend when you stand before God again.  You've got this!  I love you.

Mom

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