Dadda

Paradise is sitting in the shade, reading a book, and listening to the bubbling joy of children.

Until one of those kids starts toddling over to my blanket yelling "Dadda!" 

I've been mistaken for a man before. I threw a bunch of priests off during a procession for the new Catholic bishop, but I was wearing a robe then. This time I was wearing a dress and even though I hadn't shaved my legs in a long time, I really don't think I looked like this kid's dad.

The mom was pretty embarrassed and took the kiddo all the way to the other side of the park and he still ran back yelling "Dadda!" It made me laugh hard and I realized it wasn't so much that I looked like this kid's dad, but the boy really wanted me to be his dad. He wanted to see his dad and I was close enough so he was convinced.

We often see what we want to see, or hear what we want to hear, or even fear what we want to fear. 

People ask me, especially now, if I fear for my husband as a police officer. He's had lots of dangerous jobs so even though I despise night shift, I'm not more afraid now than when he was flying or driving ambulance on country roads. I know he can get hurt and life is precarious, but I want to share with you the statistics from Officer Down Memorial Page for 2020:

Total Line of Duty Deaths: 177

• 9/11 related cancer3 
• Aircraft accident1 
• Automobile crash15 
• COVID1997 
• Drowned3 
• Duty related illness2 
• Gunfire30 
• Gunfire (Inadvertent)4 
• Heart attack5 
• Motorcycle crash2 
• Struck by vehicle6 
• Vehicle pursuit2 
• Vehicular assault7

COVID19 cases contracted in the line of duty is the highest killer of police officers in the last ten years. It is not as flashy of a news story as violence, but reminding him to wear his mask and wash his hands seems like a good strategy to keep my fears in perspective.

We're going to be overwhelmed with narratives telling us to see one way, hear one way, and fear one way. I'm thinking about shutting down my Facebook account until after the elections but I really like seeing pictures of people, dogs, chickens, and beautiful views. 

So here's my request - just because you want to see things one way, don't force reality into it. Observe, pay attention, ask questions, and entertain the possibility that you could be wrong. Fact check from as many different sites as you can; I like to see what BBC and CBC are saying as well as US sources. 

And, finally, when someone says, "the pretty lady is not your dad" listen to them.