Here’s to You Always Making Me Laugh
“Here’s to you always making me laugh” – an excerpt from the song Have It All by Jason Mraz
I recently started following a duo from Gaza called @omarherzshow on Instagram. Omar and Mohammad are teenage boys only a year older than my son. They have been displaced due to the war, and they are trying to make the best of their life with whatever resources they have. They’ve even started a chess club so that younger children have a place to gather on a regular basis.
They give me hope. They show me how resilient human beings can be. That we are capable of making others smile and laugh even in horrendous situations. In this world where governments are sending children barely out of high school to kill even younger children, children barely out of high school are also voluntarily stepping up to help other children.
Unfortunately, their comment section is ugly. The adults are arguing over the definition of words, as if that would change the fact that children should be laughing and playing, not running from bombs. It shouldn’t matter what their nationality is.
Can we all take a moment to reconnect with the children within us? The one who knows how to make toys out of anything? The one who knows how to start a game with friends just with one touch? Can we recognize the child within each other? Because every single person on this Earth is someone’s child. We are all Omars and Mohammads, capable of making someone else smile.