Love - it matters. It is why our kids are standing up. It is why Alison Krauss and Union Station sing a song about the importance of knowing that someone is there to catch us if we fall.
As Sam Gamgee said, there is still good in this world and it's worth fighting for.
Sam: It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.
Our young people are holding on to that good and fighting
for it. How can we do anything less, when our young people standing up and fighting for justice embody that "good?"
Our kids are inspiring and give me hope. Thought you could use some of that to start the day too.
Fri Sep 19, 2014 at 3:44 PM PT: A day and a half after posting this diary, I feel that it is necessary to do an update explaining why I had no intention of the post becoming an apologetics for Christianity or a conversation about the merits or demerits of religion.
This post is about a variety of young people standing up across the country - fighting for voting rights, fighting against climate change, racism, and yes, responding to hate with love.
And yet, no one seems to have noticed the first paragraph of the diary or followed the links to read about the variety of ways our young people are making a difference.
There also appears to be a need for some clarification about the students at James Madison University. James Madison is a secular, not a religious institution.
My assumption is that the students who formed a circle around the "preacher" after he ranted hate for an hour, were not only Christian or one type of Christian.
There could have been people in that circle from a variety of faiths or no faith at all.
What their faith or no faith may be is not important to me.
That they stood together and answered hate with love is.
I wish more of us would do the same.
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