Another Day, Another Bombing.

This afternoon a post on my facebook wall went by, it reported a blast had been heard in Boston a few hours after the first runner finished the marathon. I thought to myself, I hope no one is hurt, and darkly, I hope it is domestic and not foreign. Maybe I thought this because I am a military wife and selfishly do not want my husband in yet another war, and special not a war fighting the wrong people. If it happened to be domestic, it could isolated, and not foretelling of things to come. I also thought darkly, there are countries in the world with this happening every day, another day, another bomb. It is hard on the heart.

Talking to kids about Violence

I talked to my older two children about the news, partially because we have family that lives close to Boston and because when we travel north we often find ourselves in that city. I explained the known facts, that over 100 people have been injured and two killed, one of them a child of 8 years old. The kids wanted to know more about the deaths and I let them know that those details are not released yet but they can ask again tomorrow. I tried to focus the conversation on that we are safe here, that our loved ones north are safe, and then talked about why people do such things.

My children can’t understand why anyone would harm others like that. I tried to explain it in terms they might understand reminding them of when they sometimes fight, and how they all sometimes hurt one another either with a push or pull or slap. I reminded them that something tended to trigger the event, either they felt wronged, or hurt themselves, jealous or otherwise angry, and how they hurt another with little thought, not really meaning it. I said to understand those other people they have to multiply those emotions times a thousand. People who tend to hurt others in this way are hurting themselves, angry, and doing evil rather than stopping themselves and dealing in a better way. I explained that some people are mentally ill, their minds do not work correctly, sometimes they do bad things but that not everyone that is mentally ill does bad things, many are good people who are just special. Then I explained that some people believe in Holy War, that some people use religion as a reason to harm others and lift themselves up. I am not sure my 7 year old understood, but my 13 year old did. I told her we would spend more time talking about killing in the name of religion another day and she seemed happy to not have to think about the topic further tonight.

It’s the small things.

My son who is just 7 hugged his three sisters after we talked and said he was sorry for losing his temper some times. It was very touching to see and I think I needed that small boost to my hope for humanity. I hadn’t expected it. He is my little reporter though, he loves learning and sharing things and he always feels very deeply about the sad things. I wonder how this news will effect him over the coming days. Like many Americans, I wonder how this news will effect our country.