donderdag 13 januari 2011

Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr.  President,
This morning, I got up at 6:30 to make my kids breakfast and walk them to the station, in the pouring rain, to make sure they would arrive at school in time. I will admit I wasn’t in the world’s greatest mood. The rain, the cold, the fact I am struggling to make a living working a tiring call center job, and no matter what I do the situation not changing... it all had me grumbling. And I hated the world, so full of unfairness, ugliness, stupidity.

Once home, I fired up my computer, reading the news, and stumbling upon an article about your speech at the Tucson memorial service. I decided to find it on YouTube, and watch it. “President Obama urges nation to focus on what heals, not what wounds” the news article had said. “Suuuure, that’s so easily said” I thought, cynical as I usually am towards any politician because.. quite frankly.. to me, politics is just a bunch of power hungry idiots saying a lot, but doing very little to actually change the root causes of problems we face. And so I sat back, and watched.  

I am not ashamed to admit that what I then saw made me cry. It probably means very little to you that a simple mother in a small town near Amsterdam, the Netherlands sat here, crying her eyes out because what you said there rung so true, and was so much from the heart. But I am letting you know nonetheless because I believe that the message you brought in that speech, is the one message this world needs. It is the one message that says it all. It is the message of peace, and how to achieve it. Not by endless debates, not by means of our guns are bigger than yours, not by compromising to at least give the impression we are working on it without ever changing our actual viewpoints. But by looking inside, finding that loving, caring, compassionate person we all are at our core, and nurturing that. 

A solution so simple it sounds almost too good to be true.  Peace, both inner peace and world peace alike, is already there. All we need to do, is strip off all those layers concealing it. The prejudices, the hatred, the fears that cloud our judgment.  It is our natural tendency to want to change the world around us, find someone to blame, strike back, anything but to simply look at why things bother us, and what we, not them, can do to change it.  And in a way, this is not completely a bad thing. The fact we growl, point fingers, want to strike back at least means that we care. The true opposite of love is not hate… it’s indifference.

And so, I want to thank you. Your words and the fact that you had the guts to speak them made me realize once more what life is all about.  They taught me a lesson in humility and compassion, made me look at who I am and why I am here.  And they even forced a cynic to revise her viewpoints on politicians. You sir, are definitely one of the good guys in my book. 

Thank you, and have a wonderful day.