Kindness is catching, Samantha Griscti

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Waking up this morning to the terrible news that yet another act of terrorism has been committed is utterly heartbreaking. I feel at a loss, I feel compelled to try to understand, to know why, to gain any sense of reason from an unreasonable action. I am yet to find it and my 5 year old son, who is so attune to this kind of thing, questions me all the time about bad people why they are bad, why do they do what they do, how do you spot a baddie? As a mother I can not answer him honestly, I can not explain this because I don’t understand it myself – and spotting a baddie is nigh on impossible because anyone can be a baddie.

I feel rage, I feel anger, I feel misbelief but most of all I feel sadness that someone could do this to another human being especially in the name of a religion. For the most part religion is and should be a peaceful expression of love and unity, why then must there be this extreme reaction to a sense of ‘other’? Doing this is the name of Allah is ridiculous and must be so devastating for the millions of peaceful muslims not sharing these extremist ideals.

I see these recent terrorists, for the most part, as disillusioned young adults who quite frankly have been brainwashed into believing that doing this is what their god wants. Any rational person would say that if their god was real, they would not expect this kind of action in their name. It is utter lunacy and the extremists prey on the weak, on the lost, on the lonely with utterly devastating affects. This happens, sadly, in all religions – but we should see it for it is, this is not religion this is extremism.

When I see people react in their droves with yet more anger, yet more bile and stronger violence it upsets me and confounds me. This reaction is the desired result of acts of terrorism – rip us apart, segregate us scare us, fuel the hate, fuel the misinformation, fuel the violence.

Whilst I understand, to a certain degree, the extreme reactions people have, I can not condone it. Hate creates hate and I do not want that kind of world for my children. I want there to be hope, to be love and ultimately a feeling of positivity. The way the world is today is bleak, it is daunting. We appear to have a crazed power hungry loon fronting the biggest most influential country in the world, our own country is bickering over Brexit and a general election that no one wanted, Europe is more divided than ever and the rest of the world has a real sense of ‘us vs them’ with any outsider.

This despair however must be dealt with promptly, I for one would like to see us all rise above such negative notions because whilst I see so much sadness I also see so much beauty. In the face of every tragedy are the powerful responses – people stepping up to help in any way that they can offering lifts, accommodation and reassurance. Kindness is catching it might not have the same headline grabbing effects, it might take longer to be noticed but a small act of kindness goes such a long way and it is how I want my children to live their lives.

Sadly atrocities are not new, they will never cease and they will get a lot worse as my children grow into adults, however human nature and human kindness has been always been a light in the darkest of times. This light will always be there to face adversity so long as we allow it and whilst it might be easy to let the anger engulf us and the hate to override what will truly stick two fingers up to these lunatics is everyone coming together, every single one of us and helping each other. Being kind and listening will unite us, we are not going through our lives alone and adrift from one another , we are not faceless we owe it to each other to unite and show what love, not hate can do.

Human nature is a beautiful thing and should be celebrated and embraced because ultimately the vast majority of all of us want the same thing, lets not forget that.

SIDE NOTE: Many thanks for reading my small reaction to a huge tragedy – for me writing is therapeutic so to get my feelings out is a very cathartic process and It is nice to share that with you. I would just like to take a moment and send my deepest love and sympathies to all who have been affected by the most recent acts of barbarity, and I would like to offer particular thanks to all of the emergency services who risk their lives daily to protect us and ultimately minimise these dreadful actions as much as possible.

This blog was first on www.milksok.com published June 4th 2017