Time to validate

I avoided the news about the Arizona massacre, just did not want to go there, let the news in.  After 9/11 (like the rest of America) and later with my sons serving and losing “brothers” in Iraq and later, at home, I became shell-shocked and found the best coping mechanism was to avoid, deny, and refuse to go to that dark, mournful place.  So I made art…

But … I touched my toe into the water today, listening to Obama’s speech replayed on YouTube since I conveniently missed it last night.  (There’s a very stark contrast between the woman I am today and who I was just two years ago)…  I did not watch the funeral for young Christina, and avoided the news stories for the most part too.

But now, after listening to his speech last night … well, lets just say the floodgates are open, let the mourning begin.  I don’t have words now, only tears.  For the little innocent Christina Green who never got to experience that first kiss, have a teenage fight with her mom and dad, walk down the aisle, suffer through childbirth, feel the tickle of her own child’s breath on her neck.

I told my youngest son after a brother-in-arms’ suicide some time ago:  “You need to live a life that validates him.”  Well, this incident, Obama’s words, that little girl’s death makes me want to validate her life, all their lives, too.