i’m taking a break, just for a moment, from being cranky, sweaty, overtired, and hungry (i really hate dieting.).
i’m usually in better spirits than this, but have felt overworked, stressed, and exceptionally whiny for the past few weeks.
however, there seems to be this crazy, incredible thing happening on twitter. a little girl named lucy kate hopkins is sick. her doting parents are dutifully chronicling her progress on twitter and a blog, posting very frightening pictures of lots of tubes and machines tangled around a little, pink body. very often, mixed into the sterile photos of a baby in distress, there are photos and videos of her personality and her parents’ love and strength mixed in.
now let’s be clear: lucy’s sickness is not the part that i find crazy and incredible. it’s an ugly but common reality that kids very often get sick, and though her parents seem like lovely people, i think most parents would be as devoted as they are. they are products of their generation and are perhaps more digitally connected than others in the past, but as parents, they are just fighting for lucy’s wellness. that’s what they, as good parents, do.
the incredible part is the response i’ve seen on twitter. i hover just outside a circle of truly hilarious people, all of whom follow each other and not me. the banter is usually sarcastic, inane, ridiculous, and irreverent, and it’s always entertaining. i have no idea if they know each other in any reality besides avatars and microblog posts, but i doubt that most of them do. in fact, i hope that they don’t, because that would make their rally all the more resounding. it would mean that there is a vast, widely-scattered collection of people whose only connection is twitter, and who all share semi-anonymous good will for a tiny baby.
i don’t know if that’s entirely true. i just kind of hope it is. it gives me the warm fuzzies to believe it is.
earlier this week, several of the members of this group of tweeters posted their “think happy thoughts” messages for lucy as she was going in for heart surgery. this is how i happened to become aware of the situation. it was a little overwhelming, a bit of a barrage, and i was intrigued. earlier today, this was the link that was circulating:
http://wordishness.com/post/170428368/teamlucykate
i figured i’d try to do my part to spread the word.
anyway, the real point to this particular post is that, despite my 2 weeks down and 1 week to go of vacationing coworkers, despite my sleep deprivation, my guilt over my (ch)eating habits, and my novice year of disappointment in the red sox, despite all the silly reasons for my crankiness these days, i know for a fact that i will survive them. lucy kate hopkins and her parents have a much more tenuous grasp on that kind of reality.
it’s just a little perspective, i suppose.
spread the word.
*minor programming note: the cynicism will resume soon with a list of my pet peeves. this is just a minor break for the sake of sincerity.*
