Part One: Sharing Love in Newtown, and Beyond<\/p>\n
Last week, an incomprehensible tragedy occurred in Newtown, Connecticut. The effects of this devastating event could not only be felt in the community of Sandy Hook Elementary, but in the hearts and minds of teens all across the nation. I have heard my friends repeatedly ask and wonder, \u201cWhy did this happen? What made Adam Lanza do it? How can we stop this from ever happening again?\u201d<\/p>\n
Though these questions have no easy answers, we do easily notice that teens don\u2019t want to become a product of their society \u2013 we don\u2019t want to align ourselves with a world filled with acts of thoughtless violence. We teens\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0that life can be so much more than what is now, but most of us just aren\u2019t sure on the\u00a0<\/em>way<\/em>\u00a0we will achieve it. We want to change the world, but how?<\/p>\n Changing the world sounds like a pretty difficult task, not to mention a HUGE burden of responsibility. But it doesn\u2019t have to be. It CAN be incredibly simple, if we choose it to be. In our first steps towards creating a New Cultural Story, we don\u2019t need to change the world; we just need to change a few things in ourselves. In\u00a0Conversations With God For Teens<\/em>, Neale presents the Three Way Path: Have fun. Spread joy. Share love. By just applying these three simple ideas in our own thought, word, and deed, we will bring more change in our world than we could have ever hoped for. By\u00a0being<\/em>\u00a0the embodiment of fun, joy, and love, we can\u00a0be<\/em>\u00a0the change we wish to see in the world.<\/p>\n So, it\u2019s not so tough after all. Teens across the nation are already changing the world, and they are doing it by sharing love with the residents of Newtown. One of the largely unpublished stories of the Sandy Hook Tragedy was a photograph from Reuters\u00a0from the memorial of a floor-to-ceiling printout entitled \u201cStay Strong Newtown: 10,000 Teens Send Their Text Messages of Support.\u201d For the single act of violence, 10,000 messages of love, comfort, and empathy were sent by these teens alone. These teens shared love, when love may seem hard to find. For the families involved in the tragedy, they are receiving and feeling that love. And that has made all the difference.<\/p>\n I thank not only those teens, but every teen who has sent their messages of love to a world that so desperately needs more of them in its inbox. Sharing love has shown that our generation truly believes in a new path with a new direction. We just need to forge on.<\/p>\n