ourtribe
11-01-2006, 05:33 PM
My family and I will be joining you on the February 2007 cruise... AND I CAN'T WAIT!
...that said, I was also wanting to drop you a note to highlight an individual that I have found inspiring, for the past decade. I'm sure you get many suggestions for possible guest speakers, entertainers... I wanted to add this person to the collection:
WE ALL remember Matthew Shepard's barbaric killing. His death grieved by all, but none my profoundly then his mother and father. Judy Shepard came to talk to my College campus. Her words on that cool, Fall, rainy day within the wall of the campus Chapel, embraced me as she nurtured, as a mother does, the ache of loneness one sometimes feels when outcasted. I marveled at her love despite the hate that was center of the events that took her son for her, her family...and all of us. And I revisited those days in grade school - laughed at, picked on...and my first day of high school with a bloody nose from the bully who tortured me for years and warned me "just wait till high school, I'll get you good then" and did just that.
I now have a beautiful relationship of 12 years, with two beautiful children, now 3 & 5 years old... That speech I heard that day was before I had children. Powerful in its own right, the message has changed for me. As I read recently Judy Shepard's efforts to rally young voters for the up coming election I revisited the speech I heard so many years ago and the feelings I had THEN. NOW, in my reflections I realized with MORE depth a parent's pain when losing a child. And realized in more color the preciousness of life, family... AND pondered over thoughts of how I will handle bulling that my children might encounter...ooooohhhhh the questions, the emotions...
AND I wondered if JUDY SHEPARD would have love to see her son with partner, with kids... well, what I'm saying is, I think it would be a wonderful experience for ALL of us to hear her words, AND in turn a wonderful opportunity for us to share with her 'OUR FAMILY'. What are your thoughts on such a speaker? Has her name been suggested in the past?
ourtribe
...that said, I was also wanting to drop you a note to highlight an individual that I have found inspiring, for the past decade. I'm sure you get many suggestions for possible guest speakers, entertainers... I wanted to add this person to the collection:
WE ALL remember Matthew Shepard's barbaric killing. His death grieved by all, but none my profoundly then his mother and father. Judy Shepard came to talk to my College campus. Her words on that cool, Fall, rainy day within the wall of the campus Chapel, embraced me as she nurtured, as a mother does, the ache of loneness one sometimes feels when outcasted. I marveled at her love despite the hate that was center of the events that took her son for her, her family...and all of us. And I revisited those days in grade school - laughed at, picked on...and my first day of high school with a bloody nose from the bully who tortured me for years and warned me "just wait till high school, I'll get you good then" and did just that.
I now have a beautiful relationship of 12 years, with two beautiful children, now 3 & 5 years old... That speech I heard that day was before I had children. Powerful in its own right, the message has changed for me. As I read recently Judy Shepard's efforts to rally young voters for the up coming election I revisited the speech I heard so many years ago and the feelings I had THEN. NOW, in my reflections I realized with MORE depth a parent's pain when losing a child. And realized in more color the preciousness of life, family... AND pondered over thoughts of how I will handle bulling that my children might encounter...ooooohhhhh the questions, the emotions...
AND I wondered if JUDY SHEPARD would have love to see her son with partner, with kids... well, what I'm saying is, I think it would be a wonderful experience for ALL of us to hear her words, AND in turn a wonderful opportunity for us to share with her 'OUR FAMILY'. What are your thoughts on such a speaker? Has her name been suggested in the past?
ourtribe