We Are Connected
I write this blog because I believe life matters. It seems so ridiculous that this is even something I need to state like it’s big news, but it seems like it needs to be said. The lack of respect for life is so evident:
- People have killed someone because they wouldn’t give them the remote, they were served cold eggs or they were unfriended on Facebook.
- Human trafficking is a $30,000,000,000+ industry. There are 20 to 30 million victims globally and half of them are children. The estimated average cost to buy a human slave is under $100.
- 24 people (men, women and children) are victims of rape, stalking and physical violence by someone they know every minute in the United States alone.
- Countries allow and even protect rape, murder and genital mutilation of women.
Those are some of the criminal acts that, without question, show no regard for life whatsoever. But it also happens when:
- We call someone fat, ugly, stupid…
- A child is told they are of no value, wish they’d never been born, etc.
- Friends turn against each other when they are not present.
- We judge someone for their race, socioeconomic status, gender and so on and treat them accordingly.
- Verbally attacking someone because we’re angry.
Both lists could go on and on. I write this blog because I’ve lived a life being told by many in my life that I had nothing to offer that was of value and everything I did was somehow wrong or inferior. But, my life matters as much as anyone else’s and I know I’m not alone. I want to speak into others’ lives and give them hope.
I write this because:
- I think no one should ever have a tape recording going through their head telling them they are worthless.
- No one should feel like they need to live in the shadows so no one notices them.
- A first instinct of cowering away when a hand is outstretched is one of the worst ways to live.
- There shouldn’t be anyone struggling to survive because they were discarded and left to fend for themselves.
- I believe that a person should be so filled up with true positives of who they are and encouraged in what they can accomplish, that the negatives slide off like snow in an avalanche.
I believe every life matters. I believe every person adds depth to any situation. We all want to feel like we belong and that we have purpose. We want someone to be happy to see us when we enter a room and we want what we do to count. We are connected as human beings and we can be so much stronger if we build each other up rather than tearing each other down.
Why can’t it be this way?
~ Joanna Lynn
