Awakenings

If you ever stop to think about how easily it is to become preoccupied with matters unimportant, it is overwhelming the degree to which we busy ourselves with trivial tasks.

I spent last week in Orlando at a statewide Dependency Summit. Dependency Court, for those who do not know, is the group of judges, magistrates, laws, etc. that govern child welfare and protect those children who are removed from their home due to cases of abuse or neglect. Essentially, the Court is central to the work that I do.

The Summit was an event that was open to all facets of the child welfare system and I was pleasantly surprised when asked to represent my company there. I attended, along with a handful of other employees from my work (mostly upper management). The Summit consisted of speakers, those from DCF as well as this author. It was delightfully informative as well as equally emotionally crushing. Workshops were given on a wide array of topics pertaining to child welfare and I found myself involved in a particularly upsetting one involving how to recognize child abuse.

At my level of work (remember my corporate bubble) I never witness child abuse but through pictures, case notes and court documents. It becomes easy to distance myself through what I perceive as my slight involvement in these children's lives.

As I sat uncomfortably in the cushioned steel chair for three hours, shifting slightly to allow access to the images on the screen, I was reminded that the world in which we participate in has evil threaded within.

The pictures revealed stories, recounted by the detective who worked the cases. Stories of hurt, despair, desperation. Stories that burned into your brain and sliced coolly through your heart. They were all different and yet...all terribly the same.

Images that flashed on the screen held my attention with such tremendous affliction that I was stricken. Unable to turn from the screen and the hideous accompanying stories, I was barred into the chair, invisible straps bound me and my eyes pried open with hideous intrigue.

I walked away with only this.

There is certainly evil in this world. Evil that exists outside of a Bram Stoker novel, outside of a Hitchcock movie and certainly outside of communities medial attempts to contain it behind bars. Evil that is real and alive in the most basic sense.

It is a scary world that we live in, as it has been said before. My timid observation is also this: this world is a helpless one.

What can be done? We are a solution focused population. Problem solvers, we elect those to public office who promise to solve the greatest amount. Truly though, what can be done to prevent the evil that mars the souls of the darkest individuals? What preventative measures can be taken to stop the broken bones, bruises and deaths of societies most vulnerable individuals?

Consequences, yes. Those we honor.
Yet, to a child who waits in fear every night that this night may be her last- consequences are not enough.

Helpless.

Only, Trivial things can consume you.