WAIT FOR IT.
I'm willing to wait for it...
Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it...
It's interesting how life ebbs and flows sometimes...
See, the shooting Oregon has disturbted me a great deal.
I mean, I hope it's disturbed everyone a great deal.
But when tragedies like this happen at a school…it cuts me a bit deeper. Perhaps it's because I've been in a classroom for my whole life. Perhaps it's because, even if I'm out of the classroom - I will always think like a teacher.
So when there is a school shooting - the faces of my students flash before my eyes. The faces of my colleagues become burned in my brain. I think of how many familiies will be effected - how many lives will be changed. How many hearts will be broken.
Lin Manuel Miranda's new musical, Hamilton opened this summer. And I've been trying to not listen to the soundtrack yet, because I want to hear the music for the first time when I see the show.
I tend to listen to music when I write.
And as I opened iTunes just now - something made me want to search for the Hamilton soundtrack.
I randomnly clicked on the song, "Wait For It", and the words just hit me like a thunderbolt.
You see...
I'm willing to wait for it.
I AM waiting for it.
Unfortunately, at this moment in our lives, life doesn't discriminate between the sinners and the saints...
But I'm going to wait for it. I'm going to hope for it. I'm going to do my part in making that day come.
There must be a time when we stop arguing with one another. When we stop hating one another. When we start to love more than we hate -- when lifting another person up is more favorable than tearing each other down.
I'm not saying that there will never be differences - our differences is what makes this life we lead more interesting, more bright, more full.
What I am saying, is that I'm waiting for the day when our differences are not the thing that tear us apart. Our differences cannot be the thing that warrants murder.
And so…I wait.
I wait for the day when mass murders aren't commonplace. I wait for the day when we learn how to get along as brothers and sisters. I wait for the day when the answer to problems or strife or anger or grief is NEVER solved with a gun. But with a pen. With a conversation. With an ear to listen…or even shoulder to cry on.
We all cry the same salty tears.
We all bleed the same red blood.
When are we going to get that?
I wait for the day.
I wait for the day when we stop hurting one another. I wait for when we stop caring about who we marry. I wait for when we stop trying to dictate each others medical care. I wait for when we focus on issues outside of our comfort zone. I wait for when we think globally, rather than egocentrically. I wait for the day when we care more for our fellow man than a celebrity break up. I wait for the day when we rationalize away the taking of innocent lives in a mass shooting.
I wait for when we judge one another for our characters and our hearts.
Call me naiive,
Call me silly,
But as Lin Manuel Miranda so expertly wrote...