When parents talk about having a child who is ill or struggling, nonparents often take the wrong message. They think, Thank God I was spared all that pain. If I can’t order up the precise specifications for my child, the condition in which he emerges, the choices he’ll make, if I can’t be assured that he’ll skirt the dangers that await him, maybe it’s better not to have children at all.
Those of us who know the airless terror of the 10 steps between the second you first glimpse your child’s surgeon through the glass doors and the moment he’s standing in front of you, delivering the verdict—we don’t think this way. Each time one of ours is ill or in pain, we think, Thank God I am here for him.
Smart 8 year old!!
More people need to write letters like that.
Jim R – Yeah, maybe a little too smart to be genuine? But the printing looks right. I’m guessing home-schooled. And yes, we need more people like this for sure.
Unfortunately, newspapers, TV news all believe that it is bad news (the badder, the better) is what makes good ratings and sells newspapers.
Mr. S – I wonder whether they’re wrong? People keep trying to start up “good news” media and failing for lack of an audience.
Would Aurelio prefer not to be told if some people are so profoundly evil that we understand that word because of the way they behave? Perhaps Aurelio is smart enough to be interested in what makes some people behave in such an unusual way that we use words like “madness” to describe their behaviour. I agree that we need to hear some good news along with the warnings about what is bad. We need to understand why some people are unwilling or unable to heed those warnings. Perhaps a discussion of writing styles also would be helpful. How loudly would Aurelio want someone to holler if war is about to break out?
Laurna – Good questions. I can’t answer for Aurelio. I’d prefer that the media — all of them — speak honestly and to the point about the world as they think it is.
Isabel
She may be a touch naive, but there’s a wonderful nature about her.
Tom
Tom – 🙂