Parents, Clay, and Destruction

Recently, I was watching a TED talks video. Sarah Kay's "If I Should Have A Daughter"
(here's the link if you want to watch it. Sarah Kay - If I Should Have A Daughter )
This video got me thinking about parenting. It isn't easy, being responsible for another human being. Half the time, people can barely take care of themselves. And parents, through an infinite number of possibilities, are now responsible for making sure that this little life is worth something. They mold and shape this little life... But sometimes it goes wrong. People are obsessed with making "mini-me's". There is a sort of satisfaction in enforcing your beliefs on other people. Maybe that’s why there are parents that push their beliefs too hard on their children. They want the kids to be just like them. And not just their beliefs. They just push their children to hard in general. And maybe they think their doing right and helping them, but they are ruining any sort of future relationship with their child.
If you push a person hard enough, they’re going to break. Parents, for the sake of reaching perfection (or as close as their going to get) don’t see it when their child is breaking.
But maybe it goes farther than that. Maybe they want their child to break… but that’s wandering into the realm of abuse. And I, myself, have wondered what drives a parent to do that to their child. The mother, in the course of her pregnancy, hormonally connects with the fetus. But, in stereotypical cases, it’s the father that initiates the violence.
Anger management problems, chemical imbalance, emotional instability, guilt, remorse, hatred… the list of reasons goes on and on.

And through all this, I think of the words of Sarah Kay… “Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal.” And that is probably the truest thing that I’ve ever heard. I, personally, am one of those people who want to help everyone I see. I get to know people and I learn about all the pain they’ve been through and all I want to do is wrap my arms around them and erase all the horrible things that happened.
Who knows… Maybe the world will get better… I'm optimistic.

“you are the girl with small hands and big eyes who never stops asking for more."