Looking At Love Through A Different Lens
The news and media lately seem always to be showcasing the worst in humanity; children are dying, wars starting, and break out of diseases. The media can cause the average watcher to become paranoid thinking that if they step outside their house, they may never step back inside again. But then I realize you just have to look beyond what is placed before you. This world and even life itself contain hope, happiness, and joy.
With a kind gesture and a simple smile, a person’s day or life can change without the giver even knowing about it, and that is just one of the little moments that contain goodness.
For me, I see goodness every day, through my parents love and care for their two sons who happen to have autism. Both have different stages of autism and sometimes… okay most times, it can get pretty hectic around the house. The thing is that both of my parents love them with all of their heart and soul. No matter if my eldest brother gets into everything in the house or my other brother gets too excited due to his brother shouting at the top of his lungs, my parents still love them.
To me, this is what goodness and ultimately love look like because honestly, I believe that most parents who realize that they have more than one child with autism will either send them to an institution or get a divorce or pay someone to come in and take care of them leaving them to grow up alone. I know some of you after reading that will say, “ well what if they have to hire someone because they are working or some parents just cannot handle it?” This is true; circumstances are different for each family. However, you have to wonder is the child or children happy?
When I ask my parents if they would ever send the boys to an institution if they ever became too much to handle, you know what their answer was? No, because they never want to see them hurt or sad. Even the thought of seeing one of the boys have a glazed look in their eyes because of the drugs would kill them. My parents love for the boys is so strong, and the boys know it, and they love them back. The second eldest brother can communicate verbally and sometimes out of the blue comes up to my mom and say, “ I love you!” and that just makes her heart fill with warmth.
Sometimes, I wonder if I could ever love someone the way that my parents love the boys and while also still have immense love for one another. Some examples are I sometimes see my dad bring home flowers for mom just out of the blue or treat her with a vacation somewhere to help her relax. Or my mom showing her love to dad through quirky gestures that I will not go into just for the sake of decency. Now that is a good 30 years of strong love.
I believe that if the world saw my family’s life even for an hour, the level of humanism enveloped in the world would rise and become so expansive that each and every single person on the planet would become better humans without even trying. In the end, at least I hope that this article has caused a change of perspective of your view of the world. And that if you look closely, there is goodness even in people that seem different because who knows what their life is like.
Just like my two brothers, on the outside, they are different from the average person but looking inward there will always be goodness shining through.