spirit day

it's spirit day today....the day you wear purple
to show support in ending the bullying of LGBT kids.

i've got my purple on. and i'm remembering back to
my own school days. i was a pretty compassionate kid
and didn't do a whole lotta teasing and usually kinda
friended people who were having a rough time.

but i do remember some teasing i did when i was in
sixth grade. and yeah, the guy was gay. my gosh.
thing is....i was friends with him. i goofed around
with him. but i'm sure i hurt his feelings more than once.

i'm actually glad i have that memory.
certainly not proud of it.
but it helps me think about all this.
because truly, i was about as compassionate as you get.
and i was still a stinker at times. it helps me really
think about all the hardship that the kids have to go thru.
cause even the nice kids can be stinkers.
how about those who start out stinkers and go from there?

i took a walk and remembered those sixth grade days.
and thought of all the needless pain in the world.
all the hurt we hand each other.
and i've been right in there with everyone else.
i need to look at that.
we all do.

there's so much pain we cause each other.
when there's so many opportunities to do just the opposite.
it's on my mind today.

a friend shared this vid on face book with me.
i watched it and cried and was so proud of this man for doing
what had to be so hard. there's more and more of these things
being passed around.

it's giving me hope. maybe something is starting to tip in
a better direction. i'm sure it'll be a painfully slow tip,
but it's a start.

i wanted to share.......