Morning AB, All,
....Merry Christmas to all!
What a weekend! Daughter/granddaughter been here Friday night, Saturday night. Had our “Christmas” dinner Friday, opened gifts Saturday morning, went to church Saturday where I sang in choir.
After drove down to Ocean City Merryland where we went to the Festival of Lights. Met two nieces there, went out to dinner after.
Played games, sang songs, laughed and...
...folks I grabbed on to my precious granddaughter, just turned nine years old, and hugged her for a full ten minutes, both of us just hugging tight, silent, eyes clenched tight. If love could pour out of a body into another you can believe I pushed tons of love out of me into my beloved grandchild and I prayed the entire mass, thanking God for giving her to me and to please keep her safe.
I’m sure across the fruited plains grandparents are hugging their descendants with the same force of love.
We never mention Newtown, save in passing. Kaitlyn I must suppose knows all about it. In fact, her school had a lock down drill Tuesday after the shooting, so disconcerting with the timing that the school had to call all parents and swear the practice drill had nothing to do with Newtown. I’m not sure I believe it.
But Kaitlyn tells us in great detail how the classroom doors are now locked at all times, how she learned to dive beneath her desk and shrivel up as small as possible.
Sure, she knows about Newtown.
Neither daughter or I could talk about it with her without sobs so we just avoided the subject.
At a quiet moment daughter and I discuss these shootings. she is, as you might imagine, concerned.
“Melissa, Friday a week ago 20 kids got shot at an elementary school. It was horrible. We are all aggrieved. And this Christmas 20 parents will suffer unimaginable loss.”
I took a breath as we both tried to imagine Christmas morning for the parents of those precious children and we had to pause for our mental pain.
“But this Christmas some 90 million parents will wake up and have healthy, happy children running to their gifts under the tree. Because while these tragedies happen (I then recited stats about the 1929 school mass murder, the biggest ones being in China), America is still a great place to raise a child. Not to belittle the loss of those children, but we need to keep our perspective. Most of all , we need TO NOT LET THE POLITICIANS PASS A BUNCH OF STUPID LAWS THAT WILL ONLY HURT US AND NOT SAVE A SINGLE CHILD.”
Daughter agreed and she was shocked to learn about that 1929 school massacre involving bombs or firecrackers. This country’s media wants us to believe this sort of thing only happens in America.
I got a picture to share with you guys, best picture I’ve ever managed to get in my life.
Will put it up second or third page in thread so keep commenting so I can post it.
I will also tell story behind it and....
....you will thank me very much.
We never mention Newtown, save in passing. Kaitlyn I must suppose knows all about it. In fact, her school had a lock down drill Tuesday after the shooting, so disconcerting with the timing that the school had to call all parents and swear the practice drill had nothing to do with Newtown. I’m not sure I believe it.
But Kaitlyn tells us in great detail how the classroom doors are now locked at all times, how she learned to dive beneath her desk and shrivel up as small as possible.
When we were in grade school we were taught to duck and cover so as to avoid getting “hit” by a Soviet ICBM. Now, our grade schools must train current students in how to survive attacks from crazed alumni.
I never thought I’d live to say that I “miss” the Cold War. Turns out, they were the salad days of our lives.