Balloon Boy Falcon Heene

When my son was born, I became frail. I could no longer watch news reports of children gone missing or heinously abused. I could not let myself imagine the fear and pain in that child. I could not watch a parent grieve. Not everyone is like me. But some are.

“Much of the answer lies in psychology: When tragedy strikes — whether a hurricane or a missing child — strangers often unite to comfort each other. Some were parents who could identify with the family’s loss; others simply wanted to express their condolences,” writes Benjamin Radford, Bad Science columnist and managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer science magazine. Radford is referring more to those people who send flowers to and grieve for strangers, such as the parents of missing Orange Park, Fla., girl Somer Thompsom. “For many people expressing their grief and pain, the benefit is less for the victim’s family than for themselves.”

Another reason why some of us may get emotionally involved in such cases may be what has been coined as “event grief,” described by Newsweek writer Ken Auchincloss. He writes, “emotion is the glue that fastens people to an event played out in the papers or on television.” Can you say Balloon Boy hoax before it was revealed to be a hoax? “Emotions of this sort,” Auchinclos goes on to say, “hardly count as feelings at all; they’re a form of participation. They’re like screams at a pop concert, which don’t signify love or even admiration but just exuberance at being a part of the show.”

Yet another reason, says Radford, is that these children are perfect candidates for sympathy. They are the faces we see in our own families. Cute, young, beautiful kids. The ones we cannot bear to lose because we just love them too much.

Last week my husband called and said this: “Oh God, Oh God. Have you heard? It’s awful. A little 6-year-old boy is floating in an experimental hot air balloon above Colorado.” And I couldn’t hear any more. I refused to watch TV because I knew they were covering the story nonstop. I told my husband to let me know when the situation was resolved. But until then, I could not bear the thought of a child the same age as mine helplessly floating thousands of feet in the air. I knew the outcome would likely be grim, and I wasn’t sure I could bear to hear reports of that child’s last few hours of life. He was somebody’s baby, and I could not imagine being the parent who had to endure that pain.

Too many parents have to suffer with the reality of losing a child. Like the Thompson family, who two days after reporting their daughter missing learned a body of a young girl fitting her description turned up dead at a nearby landfill. Their pain is real. Their grief is unbearable.

And this is why I will never forgive Richard Heene.

Photo, Zuma Press

Post from: Blisstree

Why I Can’t Forgive Richard Heene

Post from: Blisstree

Hillary Tears Up

But I became side-tracked. As I was searching on-line for some references, I came across this Newsweek review of three new high-schoolish book titles of which the focus is how undermining, sneaky and downright mean women are to each other at work. (And maybe just in general) — how we’re supposed to navigate through this stuff and look great doing it! These books are really just $16.00 blogs.

Reading the article just made me want to take a big ‘ol nap.

My feeling is — if someone in HR were to calculate all of the working hours lost as a result of the time spent on this crap at work, there would be such shock and horror over the complete waste of resources, that whole employee manuals would be re-written and heads would roll.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t be aware of the politics of women at work; I’m saying we wast too much energy taking it all so seriously.

Everyone get back to work!

And I’m sure glad I work for me…if I want to compete with myself, well that’s between me and Dr. Phil

Post from: Blisstree

Shoes and Rules About Success.