I was just sitting in front of my laptop thinking about the myriad of things I could write about.  There were a lot of things in the news, but most of them were kind of negative.  Being an election year, I was thinking about political things but didn’t really want to write about what I was thinking.   I was staring into my big jar of jelly beans, and that was giving me some ideas.  My 9 year old daughter kept hovering around like a satellite asking me what I was I was going to write about.  She saw the blank screen in front of me.  “I have an idea” she announced.

I pulled my eyes away from the jelly beans.  “Really?” I queried.  “Yep” she said as she jumped up into my lap and took over the keyboard.  Naomi typed a title onto the blank template; “Can You See Me?”  That was an interesting title.  I began talking with my daughter about what that meant.  Turns out, it means a lot.

Photo – “Invisible Person”  by LynnieSparrow 2009-2016

“Sometime we forget others have feelings. I mean, it’s easy to do.  Someone can just start talking without considering if another person has anything to share in the conversation.  They just keep monologuing without giving anyone else a chance to say anything.  It’s like conversational bullying.  Then other kids come over and jump into the conversation, but they don’t even acknowledge that you are there – like you’re invisible.  That can really hurt someone’s feelings.

Sometimes, people make the lame excuse “Well, I don’t know them”.  It’s like understanding math, or language arts or reading.  You have to study something to know it and understand it.  It’s the same thing with understanding people.  It takes work.  You can’t just look at a book and know what’s inside; you have to open it.

And it’s not fair to listen to what people say about other people.  Sometimes, someone might just be jealous, or not like someone, and then they say all kinds of mean things about them and try to get their friends not to like that person anymore.  It’s true sometimes people can seem kind of weird, but amongst all the weirdness, there can be one spot of decency; something awesome.  I try to like everybody so I have lots of friends; younger friends and older friends.  I also think it’s important to show compassion to people who have been bullied or hurt by other people.

Instead of treating someone like you can’t see them, you should include them and be kind to them and be their friend.  If you have been mean to someone by excluding them from your circle of friends, you should go to them and apologize.  If you don’t, you never know.  That might create a time when other people talk about how mean you are and your friends might even start leaving you.  It’s like a boomerang coming back and bonking you on the head.  Then you’ll want someone to be kind to you and include you with their friends.

If parents wanted to know of one thing they could do to make life better for us kids, it would be this – please teach your children how to be kind to others.”

From the mouths of babes.

© 2016 Curt Savage Media