I’m packing a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child to send to a child I’ll never see and never meet. I tell my daughters to imagine that child is family.
Suddenly, we realize the difference it makes when you see someone as family. She’s our daughter! He’s our brother!
What would change?
Packing that shoebox helped me realize why we hurt so badly here at Penn State. Happy Valley grieves so collectively and so deeply because we function as a family, and we see keenly where we have failed to love as a family. The victims are part of our family; the shame we feel as a group stems from realizing people that were part of our family committed horrific crimes.
This is how we should feel. I wish I felt this way about the whole world. We belong to one another.
Today, the students come together as family with a new hope, and this video below gives you a sense of what’s happening here:
Living with flair means we expand our definition of family. When a child suffers, we all suffer. When one person sins, it affects all of us. But when even one of us acts with courage and love, we all benefit.
We belong to each other.
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Undone by this. Thank you.