Dear Anita

Many people are holding vigil over the lives impacted by the Colorado Springs shooting. It’s quite sad that there’s prejudice and discrimination in the world against lgbtq people. I feel like schools should do better to educate people about lgbtq people. Some topics about sexual orientation (heterosexual, homosexual, pansexual- attracted to all genders and sexes, asexual- capable of feeling romantic feelings for all genders and sexes but isn’t interested in having sexual intimacy) and gender identity might help too.

I feel that people tend to hurt soft and kind people. The empaths and the compassionate souls often get hurt and negative feelings dumped on them. I agree that treating people kindly regardless of gender or sexual orientation or race is important in creating a more peaceful world.

I was thinking about Jenny in Forrest Gump when I wrote about the feather being soft and delicate. Yet, feathers help a bird fly, and keeps them warm. Jenny was hurt by her father and very angry at him for hurting her and Forrest understood when he said “sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks ” when Jenny is through rocks at her childhood home because it reminds her of her father’s abuse. I feel sometimes that children are like feathers, soft and delicate but overtime they’ll build themselves up to become durable and strong to fly into the world. I like to think that when Jenny passed away at the end of the film and the feather that Forrest catches was Jenny in flight free from the hurts and anger. Parents and the world often unintentionally or intentionally hurt children and it can be hard for them to grow up with self-confidence.

People do need to free themselves to think with compassion on people and treat them fairly. Listening to people’s hurts and letting them cry including allowing men to express their emotions can be helpful. Society tends to push people who are soft and sensitive down but those with empathy and compassion provide emotional awareness to hurts and they can heal.

Going back to Forrest telling Jenny “sometimes there aren’t enough rocks” I feel like people do feel anger at the people they feel wronged them. Sometimes not having a healthy outlet for anger can lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms that cause more mental health effects like depression and anxiety.

I do feel like I sometimes repeat things in my poems trying to get a chorus to make it seem more like lyrical poetry. But sometimes the repeats might take away from the other lines of the poem like you mentioned. Thanks for your insightful advice.