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School Shootings
Last week, on Valentine’s Day, a terrible tragedy happened in Florida. I’m sure it wasn’t the only tragedy to happen that day, but it’s the one that was on my mind the most after I heard the news. Another school shooting, this time leaving 14 students and three teachers dead. I’ve seen sources claim it was the 18th school shooting since January 1, 2018, and other sources claim that the number is exaggerated. My stance on the matter is: Who the hell cares what number on the list this school shooting was? Whether it was the first or the hundredth one, it is still one too many.
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Day 5: Countdown of my favorite love songs (non-romantic love)
Welcome to day five of my ten-day series of Valentine’s Day-inspired blog posts. Yesterday, I wrote about my favorite love/hate songs. Today’s featured songs are about non-romantic love. This can be love for your friends, love for your parents, love for your children, or love for other family members. It’s a sweet and often unconditional love in its purest form. The first song on the list is my favorite song. I used to sing it to my daughter, Meredith, every night when she was a baby and toddler. It was the only one that calmed her down.
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Christmas, Truth, and Childhood Innocence
Childhood innocence eventually becomes a thing of the past. If we’re lucky, it becomes fond memories and reason for nostalgic reflection when we’re adults or the need to keep that innocence alive in our children for as long as possible. Last week, my almost 10-year-old son asked me two innocence-ending questions. The first was about the existence of the tooth fairy. He doubted it and said he was pretty sure we put money under his pillow and took his tooth after he went to bed. Jonathan and I had already agreed to tell our kids the truth when they ask questions like that, so I told Drew the truth—that he…
