withjess™ blog

I know the purpose of a blog is to post everyday. Or at least a few times a week. I will do my best to honor that. I can’t make a promise though. I haven’t always been the best with following ‘rules’.



I am heart broken lately watching the news. So many school shootings again. This reminds me of 1999 – when we watched a half dozen school shootings take place before Columbine. Paducah, Kentucky, Jonesboro, Arkansas, Pearl, Mississippi – always in places we would least expect and communities who would never dare dream a tragedy like this would happen to them. I spent a little time in Columbine after the shootings in 1999. My theatre company performed one of our shows entitled “Battered Souls” for a group of students at a neighboring high school, some of them refugees from the Columbine massacre. Those who lived through such an event always said the same thing; “I wish that there was something I could have done.”



That’s a natural thing to think about after an event like this. Your mind races back to moments, conversations, looks, giggles, gossip, and notes passed – trying to think if there was ever a moment you had a clue that something this terrible would unfold. That is a trick our minds play on us. The past no longer exists and all those hunches or hints are just memories or fantasies. We have just the moments in our days to live life. Each one passing by quickly and asking us to make the most of the life we have with the people we know. How many times today did you pass by someone and not make eye contact? Not smile? Not even notice they were there? Are there people at your work or school that you see all the time but don’t speak to?



Right now, the last 2 school murders have killed girls. The male shooters have specifically targeted little girls. We can’t just chalk this up as a passing phase or a coincidence. I think there is something more here we have to look at. How do we value girls in our world? What do we think about their bodies? Their beauty? How much are we feeding obsessions and illness by our hyper sexualized images of girls in the media? There definitely isn’t one answer or theory as to why someone could take the lives of innocent girls or anyone for that matter. But I think we have to ask ourselves some deeper questions and look for our own role in this issue. It impacts us all. Our schools are not safe and our hearts are not healing unless we dig a bit deeper and begin to take action.



Do you follow your gut when you sense danger? Get the creeps from a person? Feel uneasy in your gut when you hear someone speak about harming themselves or others? We have to honor these feelings, too and if you see something or hear something that makes you think twice – we must say something. Even at the risk of feeling ‘silly’ or ‘over reactive’. Many of the students who knew the shooters in these situations said they had a hunch something was going on but didn’t want to speak up and get anyone in trouble. I think sometimes that is the risk. Not that anyone can ever truly prevent evil like this from unfolding – but we can focus on the healing now. How we will forgive. How we will love more than we hate. How we will grieve and hold onto those we love a litter tighter.



Something to think about. Let me know your thoughts…



Love and light,

Jess