These special souls remind us that true love doesn’t need a reason. We often love others for what they give us – we love our children because they are cute, smart and high achievers; we love our spouse for the pleasure and contentment they …give us; we love our parents because they care for us. This is love, but it is not pure.

When a child is born that will never achieve worldly success, cannot provide the usual source of pride for her parents, all extraneous reasons to love her fall away and what’s left… is the purest love that there can be. These children are lovable not because of what they do for you, and not because of what they will one day become, but simply because they are.

These pure souls remind us what love should be. Only such a pure and holy soul can elicit such a pure and holy emotion. We can only stand in awe of them, and the parents and friends who care for them. And we can only thank them all, for giving us a glimpse of what true love really means.

(excerpt from Israel National News in answer to the question: If life has a purpose, what is the purpose of such a short and sad life?)

Here’s what I really want to say, though: I also think there must be hundreds, thousands of young children who happened not to be recorded, but who are equally affected by the strong impact of the powerful images to which they are exposed via television, radio, the Internet, etc. Throughout most of human society, you could only be so close to a person in your immediate vicinity. We know, intellectually, that this person is really a stranger, a projection, but gut level the experience now available via mediated communication is almost indistinguishable from face-to-face interaction.

I realize that a three-year-old doesn’t have much by way of filters, and furthermore that she was already tired and cranky at this point, as the text that accompanies the video makes clear. Still: just because us older folks do a better job of covering how deeply media affect us, does that mean we are any less affected? How much of the stress that seems so pervasive in modern society comes from this simple effect? I read somewhere that, as a typical modern American, I meet more strangers in a week than my grandfather did in a lifetime. Add to that the fact that “meeting” someone via high-definition television can feel just as real as meeting all those strangers, and you get an equation for overload.

I’m not revealing names because I don’t want to intrude on their grief. But they were kind enough to add me as a friend on Facebook, and I can’t tell you how wrenching it is to read the timeline of posts, knowing how it turned out and yet finding a part of me hoping that it will somehow turn out differently than it did. People ask what the prognosis is for Hannah, and the reality is that her condition is so rare, no medical database exists to give any realistic idea. It is truly one day at a time.

I cannot read this material without crying, and yet I cannot not read it.

At the risk of invading their privacy, I share with you one post from his mother I keep returning to.

I think I would give every dime I have to just have one more day–not 10, just one is all I would ask for. I would spend it giving him a bath, rubbing warm lotion all over his body, he loved that. Then we would just hang out and listen to music.

Today, she posted this (note: it is not a photo of her son, but a piece that she herself “borrowed” from somewhere else):

If you can’t read it, the text says:

Your little boy cries too much.
My little boy makes no sound.
Your little boy sleeps warm in his crib.
Mine lies cold in the ground.
Your little boy woke up today.
My little boy never will.
Your little boy laughs and plays.
My little boy lays still.
Your little boy makes you proud,
But just as proud am I,
For your little boy will learn to walk;
My little boy can FLY.

May each of us love and treasure each moment that we have with those we love.

1. We have heard from health insurance that they will pay for a new wheelchair for Hannah. This will replace the one that was stolen. We think it likely it has something to do with how close she was to needing a new one anyway because of her growth–her new one will actually be adult sized, so it should serve her for a long time (normally, insurance will replace a wheelchair once every five years for an adult). Once again, there are hoops to jump through, but the folks we deal with there seem to genuinely look for ways to help within the scope of the insurance contract rather than seek excuses not to.
2. A colleague, who shall remain nameless, handed me an envelope last week addressed to Hannah. When I opened it, I found a personal check for a very large amount of money. We are stunned by her generosity, and very grateful on Hannah’s behalf. We made sure she knew about the above news, and she said, “You have another fund for her (her room fund), so use it for that.” All I can say is: Wow. Thank you so much.
3. Along those same lines, several individuals have made contributions to Hannah’s fund through a link on her own blog page. We’ve written privately to these folks to thank them, as well as to those who offered the use of their wheelchairs and strollers until we could get Hannah’s own wheelchair replaced. We’re very grateful for all of this.

That someone was scummy enough to steal a child’s wheelchair stunned me. That so many people (most of whom do not know us) responded so generously stuns me equally on the other end of whatever spectrum that is. I’m spending a lot of time stunned these days, in fact, which may explain why I walk around looking that way.

Biden: “I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don’t make the kind of naked power grab you are doing.”  2005
http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-dems-in-2005-51-vote-nuclear-option-is-arrogant-power-grab-against-the-founders-intent/

This video clip is a montage of the most powerful Leaders in Washington today, on record as decrying the  so-called “Nuclear Option”.  I absolutely AGREE with them, as I did when they made these statements in 2005, when Republicans controlled the Senate.  These leaders spoke the truth, and the truth has not changed.  HOWEVER, what HAS changed, is their position of power. NOW (2010) that THEY control both House and Senate (although just barely), they have completely gone 180 degrees, advocating the very thing they so eloquently and passionately resisted just five years ago.

I DON’T CARE WHICH PARTY is in power, as long they are TRUE to the OATH of OFFICE that declares their absolute loyalty to the CONSTITUTION of the United States.  When ANY politician is in breach of that oath, they should be impeached, and then criminally prosecuted, and then denied EVER serving in a public capacity again, EVER!

John Sterling