I'm actually glad that the post took me so long. I'm glad something just didn't feel right about it. I'm glad because instead of a post about hate, it's about hope.
I promise that, even though this post is about hope, I lose friends over it. And you know what? That's perfectly OK. This election brought out the ugly in people, and that's never alright. There are people that I thought had the same core values as my family; people that I thought we decent and would teach their kids love and tolerance, but instead, I saw them spewing hate and anger. After the election, a good friend of mine, who holds very different political views, and I texted this to one another (and rereading them I see autocorrect typos that are killing me! )...
This conversation, right here, sums it up. I had to stop and realize that I get to choose who I surround myself and my family with. I get to choose to stick with the good people. I also get to choose how I raise I my children. Know what? Nothing has changed since last Tuesday in that manner. I have written post after post after post about the values we are trying to instill in our children and it hasn't changed. I will continue to teach my children to be good people. I will continue to teach my children the importance of being kind, to everyone. I will continue to teach my children to be strong individuals. I will continue to teach my children to follow their hearts. I will continue to teach my kids that we are stronger together. I am constantly telling my kids that "together, we can do anything".
And that's what this is about. This is about those people, on all sides of the political spectrum, those people who aren't gloating their candidate won or whining about how their candidate lost. It's about the people who looked around the days before the election and the days after the election and saw the hate and said, "this is not OK". Until people realize that we are all losing right now, and have been for some time, our world will continue to hurt.
Core values in this society have been changing for quite some time. In my opinion, there have been people who have been waiting for something, anything, to happen to strike out. The election was the opportunity. It wouldn't have mattered who won or lost. Like Taylor Swift stated, "Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate" (who ever thought I'd be quoting Taylor Swift on something like!). Hate is always present. Those people, well, they're always going to hate. But love is also present. That's what I choose to surround my family with. I choose the love.
Last night, Monster finished up his letter to Santa. He began with "I believe that I have been good this year." Then, he listed what he would like. But then, this is how he finished...
So, there's hope. There's hope that if good people stand together, we can make this world a better place. There are many debates over what this country needs, what this world needs. But, as the Beatles stated, "All we need is love". Those of us who are seeking the good in the world, we are stronger together. We need to remember that. We can't let hate divide us. We need to raise the future generations to be good and caring people.