Hope

Saturday was World Diabetes Day. 

Our family took this picture and posted it on all of our respective social media accounts:



 

 

 

It stood out, it appeared, in contrast to the French flags and Eiffel towers populating our screens. I began to wonder...  Should I have dug up a family photo from our trip to Paris instead?  Should I have kept World Diabetes Day to myself in light of Friday night's terrorism?  Was I being selfish?

 

For two reasons, I decided to leave it:

 

World Diabetes Day is an international call to action to help people with diabetes, particularly those who cannot help themselves.  It's a call to find ways on all kinds of levels, from the United Nations to national governments, to towns, to non-profit organizations to individual actions to bring diabetes education, medication and care to everyone who needs it across the globe.  That didn't feel selfish at all.

 

And the message on our hands?  It seemed appropriate for both occasions and for many more.  In a world where terrorism is increasingly common and where hatred feels impossible to overcome, what more can we wish for the people being terrorized?  The same thing we wish for children who can't afford enough insulin or for places where people are dying all too soon from diabetes: Hope.