A Few Words About Newtown

I feel like I shouldn't post the the song I wrote this week without first acknowledging the recent events in Newtown, CT.    So many words have been written and spoken already about this tragedy, and yet as someone whose life's work is focused on young children, I feel I must also add my few impressions.  My initial thought after hearing the news was that the children killed were right at the perfect age for many of the songs I write.  I could picture them at a Miss Lynn performance, jumping and spinning and shaking their hair.  While I did not know any of the children who died at Sandy Hook Elementary, I have known many others of that age, some in passing and some very well.

In the days since the shootings, there have been a lot of labels thrown around to describe those involved.  "Hero."  "Madman."  We love to label one another in our culture.  It is so much easier to do so than to see each other as we are, as unique individuals living in a complicated world.

While it might seem lofty or even absurd given the nature of many of the songs I write, this is the reason I do what I do:  to communicate to children and adults that each one of us is special, with different gifts, abilities and weaknesses.  The world is full of wonderful, terrifying, often incomprehensible things.  Labels are not enough; we must look closer to celebrate the specificity of our world, of ourselves and and of each other, to have any chance of working together to persevere.

That's all I wanted to say right now.  Thanks for reading.  Thanks for listening.  Blessings to you and yours.