The Time is Now

This past week, one of my all-time favorite writers and bloggers, Ann Voskamp, posted a letter on her blog. The letter was to three year old Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler who drowned in the Mediterranean during his family's desperate attempt to get to safety. It is beautiful and it is heartbreaking and it is something that should be read by everyone. At the end of her letter, she called for others to pen letters to Aylan. My letter is below.

Dear Aylan,

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry that I have been so preoccupied with my own silly, trivial life things that I somehow forgot that there are three year olds who are losing their lives in an attempt to save them.

I'm sorry that last Wednesday, I was caught up in news of an impending pastoral change at my church and didn't even see the pictures or hear your name until days after your death.

I'm sorry that, because it's easier to look away in this life, sometimes I choose to do exactly that.

I'm sorry that I teach and preach empathy and often forget to exercise it myself.

I'm sorry that I have never lived in a place of danger, that I have never feared for the safety of my daughters, that I don't know what it's like to lose everything to try and gain something.

I'm sorry that because your reality isn't mine, sometimes I don't see that your reality exists.

I'm just sorry.

But I am also hopeful, and I am awakened, and I am promising you that I will be vigilant with your memory. In the same spirit as another little boy, many years and many miles away, you have reminded me that just because it seems like the entire world is looking away doesn't actually mean they are. There will be those who stand beside, who reach out, who speak up. And I believe that we are raising up a generation who will be the standers, the reachers, and the speakers.

In Sadness and Hope,
Athena Davis

There are lots of ways we can help. Ann has another post entitled "Why Now is the Church's Moment and It Will Take All of Us Not to Miss It" in which she details ways in which we can take action. My Holocaust Literature class is getting started right now on some plans. What can you do?