I Dare You.

I dare you to go home tonight and complain about the bad reception on your cell phone, the overpriced meat you just bought, or the gas prices that fluctuate between ridiculous and obscene. I dare you to swear about Hamilton leaving the Rangers or the Cowboys' inevitable losses or the cost of milk.

As you open your mouth to complain about your losing bet, your lost keys, your lost contacts, or the losing economy, I want you to close it with the thought of what real loss is. Loss of that little hand. Loss of that little voice. Loss of homework to never be done. Loss of Santa. Loss of wiggly teeth. Loss of little love and little toes and little futures that could have grown so large if only. If only.

I picked up my kids from school today- SO. DAMN. LUCKY. THAT. I. CAN.- and thought about where and who I'd be if I lived 1700 miles north west in a little town outside of Newton. I cry. I cry for them and cry for me and cry for my babies and cry for a world where someone so young can think of no other recourse for his angst and wrongs than to destroy all the hope he can see in others. I cry for those parents. I cry for those children who will never see tomorrow. I cry for the people who have to wake up each day from now on, knowing that the one safe place in their children's lives- aside from their parents arms- was NOT. I cry because no matter how much I hurt, I will never know what they feel and who THEY are becoming...and I cry because there are those who will try to turn in this into some political agenda instead of treating it with the sacred respect, love, and sympathy it deserves.

If you are one of those and I know you, then run with it. Say it. Make this about guns and Republicans, Democrats and educational codes. I have seen enough comments today from people so far removed that I know that thoughts will very likely head there shortly, if they're not there already. We each have our own way of working through what we don't understand, I guess.

As for me, I will continue to cry and hurt for those parents, those families, and that community. I will continue to be grateful for the fact that I can hold my children for one more day. I will continue to remind myself that there is nothing - NOTHING- in the world more important than those little bodies who rely upon me for their worlds...and I will cry knowing that there are some parents who no longer will be leaned upon and who will suffer that gaping wound forever without even having had one last kiss, one last hug, one last lost tooth, one last spelling test, one last shoelace to tie, one last good-bye.