Bless the Beasts...

Dear Maria,

Some images stick deeper than others, of course. Sondra Hoyn’s picture of the young Thai boy Bank knocked unconscious during a Muay Thai boxing match is one such captured moment for me. To see the fragility of that child and know that adults encouraged the event—well, no thousand words from me can do justice.

I was just saying to a friend of mine the other day that I have been thinking that at the moment a baby is born that perhaps somewhere out there in the universe a star may have come to light at the same moment. That star may burn billions of years, and then I think of Bank stretched out on the canvas.

Now I read this morning that the Taliban want to kill Pakistani Malala Yousafzai for her outspoken call for girls to be educated in Swat Valley. The New York Post quotes the spokesman for the Taliban as saying “She is not a brave girl and has no courage. We will target her again and attack whenever we have a chance.” Ah, the courage of a gunman firing at a girl of 16.

Last night I watched a stream of high school students—both female and male—parade across the auditorium stage to receive academic awards for their achievements in the classroom.

Approximately 250 babies, as sources estimate, are born per minute in the world. What life may hold for each of them. I thought, too, the other day that celebrating a Year of the Child was not long enough. Perhaps a Millennium of the Child?

Does the Taliban gunman believe that 1,000 years from now his ancestors will still be killing children? At the very least, I would offer up this opinion: You can never kill everyone who disagrees with you.

Bless the beasts and children, indeed. Hold your own children a little closer. Be well.

Just, srk