The kids are all right...
We hope. We pray. We plead.
But are we?
The kids are resilient...
We hope again.
The kids are kind. They are loving. They are forgiving. They are the future.
We are the present though, and all good futures are built in the present, which eventually becomes our history. We are all so angry. We are sad. We are tired. We are trying. We keep trying to find our new normal, but with each sunrise we are met with challenges that feel anything but normal.
We haven't felt love of country or our fellow man in years if we're being honest, and it's time for honesty.
We have unleashed on one another on social media over serious and mundane issues, but somehow the individual issues don't seem to be the route of our anger. No one is innocent. No one. We have all allowed our anger to bubble up so far, that we've forgotten that we the people need to take care of each other.
I miss the days before COVID, sure, but I miss the days before social media tore us all to shreds even more. We are watching a war unfold. We are watching as the people of Ukraine come together and stand united against their enemy. We are watching as they show us all what it means to love your country so much that you come together and say, one of us means all of us.
We were those people, until we weren't.
We can be those people again. The ones who respect another person even when they don't share our exact perspective, because perspective is so personal. We have to be willing to realize though that we have work to do. We, not they, not you, we. We all have work to do.
We can work our way back to love, diversity, understanding, empathy, and being united. We can learn to admit when we're wrong. We can learn that not everything has to be red and blue...there is a beautiful hue somewhere in between, it has united us before, and it can do it again.
We can take the opportunity to build a future for our children, but we have to do it together. You see, the kids, they don't see in red and blue. They see in full color. They see another kid who needs a friend. They see another kid who wants to play. They see another kid who wants to be a kid, until they don't. When they stop seeing the simple picture in front of them, it's because we went and made it complicated.
The kids are all right until they're not. They need us. It's time for us to come together. When they see the grown-ups grow up, they will realize they're safe enough to do the same.

This post originally appeared on Outsmarted Mommy by Jennifer Lizza