Finding humor when the world is scary
Once again, terrible news about tragic loss of lives at the hands of an angry, murderous lunatic, this time in France. And once again, words fail me. I’m brokenhearted for the dead and the people that loved them, and mourn along with all of France and the world. For our children who are hearing about death and violence and destruction over and over, it’s difficult to help them process what they’re hearing and seeing.
One thing I hope for all of us is that the actions of a few don’t cause us to turn against an entire group. The funny new middle grade novel, It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas, is set in the 1970s and tells the story of Cindy, a young girl living in Newport Beach, CA during the Iran hostage crisis. As an Iranian citizen, Cindy finds that fitting it, already hard enough, becomes even harder once her neighbors start assuming that her family are the enemy.
Will reading a book make things okay? Sadly, no, but if nothing else, it will give our children a view of a group of people they may not usually see. There is no way to make anything better here, and coming up with solutions to the problems the world faces feels overwhelming. I pray for peace, and for understanding between groups. It’s the only way.