Mother Theresa once said, “How can there be too many children? It is like saying there are too many flowers.” Looking back to the time I first discovered this quote, it didn’t hold much significance in my life. I did not understand what she meant. As my role model, I was disappointed not to understand one of her more famous quotes. Little did I know that given enough time and experience to learn about life, one day I would fully understand what Mother Theresa must have seen during her time on earth.
My love for Mother Theresa stems from my fondness for humanity and how I want the world to be peaceful so that all humans can live in harmony and prosper. This was most of her life’s work. I can’t possibly address the entire challenges threatening to destroy humanity today, but one such challenge keeps me awake at night when I ponder about it. The assault against children, specifically from gun violence in Memphis and wars the world over, is one such issue that I cannot turn a blind eye to.
How can there be too many children? It is like saying there are too many flowers. However, as the beautiful roses are trampled on, innocent children are ruthlessly murdered. Like the rose bleeding where it was dropped, beautiful children are left lifeless on our sidewalks. I remember reading about one such atrocity and thinking maybe the killer was blind. For how do you open fire and shoot someone with a smile as wide as the open sky? Their eyes vibrant and joyful as the summer sun. The shooters must be cold like the December sun, but then I remember, the killer is us.
Children are not only our future, but they are the present. They are the seeds God planted in each of our lives so that we can be able to learn what true love means. For when a child loves, they melt the hearts of those who are cold and bring happiness even to the strange neighbor who doesn’t like having people around. Something about them just unites this world. Yet every minute, a child is shot or killed. How can we claim to be human when we actively allow monsters to destroy the most human part of us. Without children, the present is dull, and the future is nonexistent.
My wish is to see a world where the laughter of children rises above any other sound. Children are flowers and they deserve to be nurtured and loved. However, I cannot remove the images that haunt me, seeing that flower drying on the ground. Sometimes I wonder, is it even worth it to bring children into this world? What kind of world will I be bringing them to? Will that be mature of me to bring them into this rotten world? Who is going to take care of them? Am I even going to stop worrying every time they leave the house? For at this rate, the number of children dying seems more like a tsunami just entered our rose garden and there is no hope that any will survive. How can we call ourselves human, when we all go to bed at night forgetting that an innocent child somewhere is about to lose their life. The worst part is that these roses get mercilessly trampled, and it’s not an easy death. So much suffering, and yet we call ourselves human.