Dear Gerah: Believing in the tooth fairy

Thought I'd share this email from a friend that I received this morning. It goes:

Hey G,  

I'm just sitting here at the computer again, ruminating, and waiting for something important to happen, like a ball game...  So I thought I'd start my first draft of a letter to the editor or somebody else real important:

Hey,  I'm not a Democrat or a Republican, but I was sitting here wondering if we ever conducted a war before that we asked no one to pay for except our grand children...  Yes, maam, put it on the tab...  I'd like to believe that in 10 years, when we may leave, the Sunnis, Shia, and Kurds are going to shake hands, put down their guns, and evenly split the riches, but I also believed in the tooth fairy.  And will we be known as the great founder of democracy, not an occupying power (who didn't get the lights turned on soon enough)... ???  Anyway, as someone said, How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky, and how many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?

And for some reason this email hit me just right this morning and I too, began to ruminate. So I replied:

Dear Top Secret Friend who sends me thoughtful emails,

Thanks for your letter to the editor Gerah - I feel quite privileged to be the recipient of your very real concerns. My advice: Go ahead and send it in to the local newspapers. Most the good ol' boys around here won't care, or even read it; hell, how many of them even read? Remember, you are not alone, there are many out there who are like us, and feel EXACTLY THE SAME WAY YOU AND I DO. And, those who read this short thought, question, and quote of yours in the paper will think about what you have said.

Key word here: THINK. We need more of this "thinking" business to go on...

... and when they think about what you have written, like I have, they will realize that all we can do is raise our children and grandchildren to be thinkers like us. And for our children to teach others to think, as you are doing with me right now. Herein lies the reason I take parenting way too damn seriously. I take it seriously because I know that us thinker-types are in the minority, and our children are in for a tough road. On top of everything else, we didn't circumcise Niko - and poor Kyra's destined to at least 6 feet tall and I'm sure you've read my blog posts or heard my rantings as growing up as a ginormous female. It just ain't easy. These kids have to be tough. Remember Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue?

Yeah. It's kind of like that.

Gerah

Comments

[Hillary]

Must have been something in the air with writing this morning. Your secret friend wrote the letter to the editor about feelings. You wrote a blog post. I wrote the review to the new Indiana Jones. We intellectuals.

[Craig]

Hey Gerb, Where did you run into all these smart friends of yours?

[Stacy Quarty]

Hi Gerah!

I'm back from the abyss of book writing and into the blogsphere once again. Glad to see you're still blogging. Your kids are really growing and looking gorgeous!

Interesting post. I tend to stay away from politics but I tend to agree with you and your Top Secret Friend here.

[Hillary]

When are you going to post again?

[gaia gold for sale]

Must have been something in the air with writing this morning. Your secret friend wrote the letter to the editor about feelings