(An uncomfortable, opinionated, short essay on common behavior)

Have you ever watched a fly crawl on other people, curious how it is that they don’t feel the tiny little heebie-geebie inducing claws on their skin? Okay, well obviously, I have. (Search images for how house flies walk on ceilings if you want to know.) House flies, they bother us, but not so much that we really change our daily lives. We work around them. We ignore them as best we can. Kind of like the proverbial elephant in the room. It’s there, but we don’t look at it. We step around it, pretending we really wanted to go this way. Our society is, at this point, chalk full of elephants in the room: human trafficking, the soft bigotry of low expectations, gender dysphoria, compulsive shopping disorder, social media addiction, pornography, emotional addiction (addicted to being afraid), self love and so many more, but we treat them like unimportant flies. We are too busy, being busy, to deal with them. We are so busy, being busy, that we don’t even stop to analyze the information given to us to check if it’s true or even consistent. We just keep on keepin’ on, never looking at the ties that bind us, or the words that guide us to see if they hold up to scrutiny. Most of all, we certainly never consult God. What an out-dated ridiculous idea. God? Not important. Pfffft…

You know what *is* important? Our peers. Ever since your mom dropped you off at school for the first time, the message went out, “Here’s what’s valued!” These 20 (or so) people your own age are so important that even the unique bond between mother and child is cut. Mom is less important than getting along with your peers. Further, you need to get out of the way so that mom and dad can do their things. You’d better not rock the boat little one. Not only are these same-age humans the best, if you don’t fit in, mom will be mad she had to leave work, to come and deal with whatever problem you made at school. Then where will you be? Your classmates won’t like you and neither will your mom. No one will like you. You’d better go along to get along. Don’t stick out. Don’t be different. Don’t disagree. Shhhhh. Fit in the box. Don’t see the elephants, they aren’t there, ignore them like a house fly.

ETA: Major generalizations here… The point of this is two fold.

1) We need to be aware of how things might seem to our children.

2) This is one of the reasons our culture is so afraid to stand up for the truth.