[D6, ME] Confessional - Bee Haw

[Bee Haw]

Bea came in and took a seat. A deep breath.

"I have been thinking a lot today. A conversation with LD. Temple. Then talking to the kids at the community center."

"Here's the thing. I told the kids a message I think is so important. You have to know who you are and what you value. And stand up for what you believe in. Even if it means risking other people disliking you. The right people will like you for exactly who you are."

"But there I was, just a couple hours earlier, nagging on LD, encouraging him to be more like me. My values. Because I care about him. And I want him to be happy. And I want his online fam to be healthy and happy."

"I prayed and prayed about it at temple today. And it just came to me. His value - ' I thumb it to the man, right. It's punk.' That's a life-saving value too. Just for ... kids not like me. I have been so lucky to have kind parents with good values, a kind church community. But not everyone has that! There are kids whose parents are teaching unhealthy, bad, dangerous, selfish, or unethical stuff. There are churches teaching stuff that isn't gospel or good or kind. There are people at work or entire workplaces that are doing the wrong thing, teaching the wrong lesson."

She thought about Detective Nasir. She prayed he was hanging on and fighting the good fight.

"People whose live are going to put them on the path of bad authority figures... They need someone crying in the wilderness that you can be punk, you can push back, you can defy. That the courage to rebel is important. LD's seen so much pain in his own life. He gets it."

"I haven't ... I didn't."

"I think I need to apologize to him. Not because I want him to like me. (Which, honestly, I do.) But because he knows places I've never been, and he's standing up for his own values, and he should."