Hi Folks! Here are some thoughts, culled from your comments, that resonated for me. – L. My sympathies go out to the parents and families. I cannot imagine what they must be going through. On the other hand, I have heard as much as I want to hear about it. Evil exists in this world and insensitive as it sounds, talking endlessly about this event is not going to shine any light on why it happened. Shhh…I feel the same way. I even worry that focusing so much on it does the opposite of shine a light. It creates darkness:…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Folks! This cartoon comes to us from Russia, which apparently has some similar issues to the United States, when it comes to authorities deciding whether parents are “good” enough. Small world! – L. Knock knock.
Hi Readers — Believe it or not, this isn’t even a post about Sandy Hook. It’s about Tony Hawks and a photo he posted of himself skateboarding as he swung his 4-year-old daughter, who was not wearing a helmet. I believe in helmets. I love them. I make my kids wear them. But I do not believe that seeing one Instagram pic of Tony with his un-helmeted daughter is a huge problem (the way, for instance, ABC News does). In fact, to hope and pray for a day when every image we see in any medium is safety-tested, doctor-approved, drug-free,…
Hi Readers — I found myself nodding along with almost every word of this post, by Jennifer Murch, a homeschooling mom of four on five acres near Harrisonburg, VA. You can find more of her musings and lots of recipes at her blog, Mama’s Minutia. – L Self-Care I first started writing this post in my head while I was working in the kitchen with my little boy. He was painstakingly cutting out leftover gingerbread dough. He had flour smudges on his cheek and forehead. His nose was snuffly. His pants were falling down. My little boy is six, the…
Readers — This is PRECISELY and I mean PRECISELY what I feared might happen, post Sandy. First of all, there is the way we are almost ENCOURAGED to believe that if some children are hurt, somewhere, sometime, now all children are in danger, everywhere, all the time. Second, there is the ease with which some folks in power are ready to exchange age-old humanity for the inhumanity of pseudo-safety. And finally: Ugh. Who wants to show up anyplace where the door is slammed in your face as if you are a psychopath till proven otherwise…by your access code? – L.…
Hi Readers — My friend Nancy McDermott, a columnist at Spiked-Online, wrote this to me the other day. It was not apropos of the Sandy Hook shooting, just apropos of being alive, being a parent, and being a realist, which means (believe it or not) being grateful. – L. My son turned 10 the other day and got out of bed late on the night of his birthday and tearfully asked me what is the point of living if we’re just going to die in the end. (He’s a very old soul.) So I held him and told him because…
Hi Readers! Wondering what’s happening at your local schools, vis a vis more security. My older son’s high school is conducting a lockdown drill today, my younger son’s principal emailed home a comforting note but did not discuss any new procedures. One reader wrote: Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m wondering if anyone has contacted or is getting ready to contact their school/district about NOT implementing more security measures in light of Newtown? Our elementary school has been handling things fairly well in my opinion, but in response to (apparently) repeated questions, the principal sent out a message this afternoon saying that…
Hi Folks — I know everyone’s obviously tense at the moment, but here’s a classic overreaction: When some boys were shooting a video of themselves acting out the body’s immune system using an umbrella, they were mistaken for psychopaths and the school went into lockdown. Kids hid and cried, parents careened to the school (and, thank God, didn’t run anyone over). Here’s the story. – L.
Hi Readers — Here’s an issue I truly want help figuring out. I just got a comment on the post below this one (which was about why the Sandy Hook shooting feels so close) from a reader very far away: All the way over here in Australia, this pain is just as raw. The faces of these darling children beaming are out from the front page of today’s paper. The pain is gut wrenching….it’s in my heart, it’s in my head, and it’s in my womb. It does not make me fearful to send my children to school, but…
Hi Readers — Here’s a piece I wrote for The Atlantic about the shooting. It’s not about gun control, it’s not about mental health services or the lack thereof. It’s about how living in modern, instantly connected times changes us, our reactions and our expectations. – L. A School Shooting in the Distance In the end there were 38 children dead at the school, two teachers and four other adults. I’m not talking about the horrific shooting in Connecticut today. I’m talking about the worst school murder in American history. It took place in Michigan, in 1927. A school…