Humanity

Dear World,

I’m desperately trying to find my friend.

I miss her.

She is so beautiful, I often find myself in tears.

I know she was here.

She would always visit from time to time, but lately, she’s been away.

Her name is Humanity.
If you find her, please send her my way.

I really need her right now.

There is a knot in my stomach and I can’t shake it.

It’s giving me this awful sense of looming doom.

I can’t make sense of it,

the hate, the violence, the heartlessness.

I don’t understand.

My soul shudders.

Millions of Syrian refugees and children fleeing crisis,

only to be rejected,

and then blamed for a terrorist attack;

death threats against black students in Missouri;

countless lives lost in ruthless acts of terrorism in Beirut, Baghdad, Paris…

My heart is crying,

for more people than it can even hold.

And when I turn to my community to find comfort,

instead, I find judgment.

So today, I ask to you:

Please do not tell people how or for whom they should and should not mourn.

Yes, we may be frustrated at the media for their portrayal (or lack thereof) of some stories over others. I get it; I’m really frustrated too.

But they are all stories that matter.

Do not accuse someone who offers prayers to Paris alone of being a racist or of not caring about the rest of the world.

If you want to initiate dialogue about other tragedies, please do. Share them with your friends. Educate others. Do what the media is failing to do.

But don’t put people down for their pain when they verbalize it.

No one is fully informed of everything that is happening in the world—certainly not me, and not you, either. It is impossible, so please don’t hold others to a higher standard than yourself.

Because if our words are the reason people feel ashamed to mourn and grieve when innocent lives are lost, then we are shaming them for caring.

And they will stop caring.

And we need people who care.

Now more than ever.

I need Humanity in my life.

I’m sure you do too.

If you find her, please bring her to me.

Love,

A human, praying for the world