My Hope For The Next Ten Years

Ten years later, and I still cry. There are some images that I just can’t watch… and it has been a decade. I covered in an earlier blog where I was and what I was doing. We know so much all these years later, how they managed to carry it out, how many people fought to save lives, how many lives were lost… but also how wonderful and full those lives were. We know a lot ten years later. We have traveled a long road as a country to get to today, and it has often been a rocky road. When I look at where we are today and all that we have behind us, it makes me wish for better. So on this tenth anniversary, here is what I hope and pray to see in all of us in the next ten years.

• Be KIND to one another. This is my overarching and deepest hope; can we please just treat one another with a little more kindness? Do we need to wish one another harm, or tell someone they are worthless? Be bigger than the other person calling names. Smile at one another once in a while! And you know what; it is called the golden rule for a reason! Treat others as we would like to be treated. Let’s get back to that.
• Give Blood. Really, simple thing here… go give blood once in a while if you are able. There are people all over the place who are in need of blood donations, especially when there is a disaster. How helpful would it be if we donated blood more often than when there was a disaster going on? It doesn’t take long… and you get a sticker and free cookies!
• Don’t Fight. Please see item number one… don’t fight is tied to be kind, but it is getting its own bullet. I am so sick of seeing people get into fights at athletic events with fans from the other team. Same thing can be said for our politicians… they may not be throwing punches at one another, but this verbal back and forth name calling is awful. STOP FIGHTING WITH ONE ANOTHER. Please, let’s work together to cheer one another on. To enjoy the love of the sport we are watching, to work towards compromise to build something better than we have.
• Help one another. You remember that movie Pay It Forward from years ago? Or even those commercials from Liberty Mutual? The idea that you see someone do something nice, or someone does something nice so you do for someone else. Imagine if we ALL actually did that? Seriously, stop for a moment and think about that. If we could all take five seconds and give back. Hold the door open for someone, pick up the clothing that has fallen off the rack, let someone into the lane they or trying to get into. They are little things that can help make someone else’s day better. After those small things, imagine if we took another little step in that direction… give up a Saturday and help clean up a park, spend an evening helping serve food at a local shelter. There are so many ways we can give back… let’s make time to do it, and do it often.
• Learn from one another. From religion, to slang words, to our families’ favorite recipes… we all have so much to learn from one another, to understand. Can we please take a moment to ask a question in a polite way, and be given an honest answer? Let’s please not judge one another for not knowing something, and lets appreciate the courage it takes to ask a question when we don’t know what the response will be.
• Own your actions and words. This is simple… take ownership for what you say and do. Recognize the power that you as an individual have in this world to cause harm or do good. Own up to your mistakes, we all make them.
• Thank our soldiers. They are out there every day fighting for each of us to live the lives we do in our own ways. They leave their families behind and put their lives on the line for them every single day, the very least we can do is say thank you to them. When was the last time you actually thanked someone in the military? I haven’t done it nearly enough, and that needs to change.
• And remember their families. Did you read the statement above? Thanks also needs to be given to the families left at home… they are carrying a great burden that I wonder how many of us stop and think about on a daily basis. When I hear a report on the news about the latest casualty in Afghanistan, my thought process is a whole of a lot different than some who has a loved one over there… and I feel that we need to be aware of that more.
• Respect Our Leaders. I don’t like all of the decisions that the President makes. I didn’t like all of the decisions the one before him made, or the one before him. But at the end of the day I firmly believe that whoever the President is, that they are a good and honorable person and are trying to make the best decisions they can. I know I sure as hell wouldn’t want that job. I am not asking anyone to agree with every decision or even the majority of decisions that person makes… or even our other leaders in the House or Senate, but please let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and at the very least show them a little respect. Is it necessary for the average citizen to be wishing them dead or saying blatantly untrue or downright mean things about them? NO, it is not. It is possible to disagree in a civil manner… can we move back towards that middle of the continuum in discourse instead of the malicious way we are now?

Finally, I love these two little girls, LiLi and MG more than anything in the world. And I would love them to grow up in a perfect world, but I know that won’t happen. But can’t we all try to make it a kinder and more caring world for them than it seems to be at the moment? Can we each please try to do one nice thing once a day for someone else? My deepest hope is that in another ten years…. When LiLi is ten and MG is eighteen that is a little bit happier place. Can we please all agree to try? That’s my request for all of us. And now, no more 9/11 talk for me! Back to our regularly scheduled blog programming tomorrow!

MG at the beach

Most precious baby ever