why is it when the kids are little, time seems to move so slowly? with newborns, time feels frozen almost. you are keeping track of days and then weeks of life. and then they are toddlers and you count time in months. "she's 16 months' old," you say, because you're keeping track of developmental milestones and nervously awaiting the terrible twos.
and then all of sudden, they are rambunctious kids and you're organizing playdates and lessons and figuring out schools and how to entertain them while you're making dinner. (i used to feed rara and then put her in the stroller and make sasha and zarina push her up and down the hallway while i was cooking). or you're trying to figure out whether your neighbor can watch one who needs to come home while you're stuck at work (and working on remembering to pick up the supplies for a school diorama project). you count the minutes before bedtime, the hours you can sleep before you get up and start the whole delicious and exhausting and messy process all over again.
but when they hit 11 or 12, everything starts moving faster and faster. only a year til middle school, and then tutors and SATs and performances and school dances and teams and heartbreak and the next thing you know they are halfway through high school and you haven't unpacked the summer clothes from two years' ago. next, you blink, and the college applications are all in and you're in limbo, waiting to see what happens next.
amongst her choices is USC which is a good school for acting and performance. so i was talking to a fellow mum about it and she said, "it's a great school and, even though it's in a terrible neighborhood, the crime rate is going down. there were only four shootings on campus last year - but no one was killed."
i said, "FOUR shootings?! (let me add that teachers (and others) are now allowed to carry concealed weapons at schools and churches in north dakota.) who is giving students guns?"
the mum, who happened to be british and danish, shook her head.
school children and college students and movie goers and shopping mall shoppers are getting shot in peacetime u.s.
calls for gun control and new gun policies are all over twitter and facebook and whitehouse.gov but no one seems to have a clear plan or any idea what the 2nd amendment really meant.
a friend of mine, pia sen, a brilliant professor in birmingham, alabama, who raises the most beautiful flowers, is trying to fund a crucial study on gun violence, access to guns and gun policy. we have less than a month to help her. (click here to read about it).
click here to donate funds
but please do it soon. blink again, and your kids will be adults. we hope and pray.
No comments:
Post a Comment