Compassion and Empathy

Let me tell you a story.

Do you know that the Ugly Duckling had a brother, Dark. He's never talked about, you see. Momma Swan sent Dark to school and taught him how to swim, just like Ugly. But, Dark didn't want to learn. Momma tried and tried.

Momma took Dark to the pond day after day, trying to get him to learn to swim. You see, it's a big pond out there and Momma didn't want Dark to drown. One day, Dark decided to do all the things Momma had always told him not to do. Momma had to let Dark face the pond on his own, whether to drown or to swim.

Momma and the other ducklings didn't see Dark for a long time. Momma swan was a beautiful and famous swimmer, that got even more famous while Dark was gone. She always worried about him, but she did have other ducklings to look after. She even helped other swans to swim as beautifully as she did. Then, they heard that he had done something really, really bad to two of the forest creatures. Momma and the other ducklings were crushed. The other forest creatures were outraged.

So, when this awful thing happened, the other forest creatures decided to pluck at Momma's feathers so that she would have a hard time swimming. Ponds were even closed. Some of the forest creatures realized that Momma didn't make Dark do these things. They thought that everyone should be helping those creature's families that got hurt instead. No one could hear them. Most of the forest creatures wanted to hurt somebody back.

The saddest part of this story is that this isn't the first duckling to not listen to its mother, and it won't be the last. Because Dark's momma was a beautiful and famous swimmer, all the forest creatures heard about it. I wonder if any of the forest creatures will realize that the families of those two creatures that got hurt need those that are plucking feathers to support them instead of waste their time plucking feathers.

Please pray for those involved, all of them. Annamarie Cruz Randazzo, her family, John Hardin, his family, Jeremy Chapman, his family, Joshua Henninger, and his family are all in my thoughts and prayers as they all should be in yours.