How not to speak to others.

It's been a while since I've written anything of any particular worth. Last night, sat at a table, with four peers, I felt passionate again. I'd been asked how the house was coming along so I showed a few pictures I fancied in various rooms. I displayed a picture, from Southend 1941, of a mother with her daughter in a wheelbarrow both in gas masks. I suppose it was unwise though I've never been known to tred lightly where I should. In the dining room, I explained, I wanted to dedicate a wall to the causes and effects of war. They laughed, said from my western home I was trying to make myself feel better. It filled me with bitterness and crushed my delicate idea.

It was luck I was born in the west. It was luck I had Grandparents willing to pick me up where my parents left me. It was luck I saw the ripple effects of war young. I did not choose it and I worked where I felt I could do my best with to tools I'd been given. In our homes we should be able to pay homage to the life experiences we've had and the things we believe are important. I felt I had been mocked by my educated peers when I would never mock them for their choices.

War is important to me. I want my home to be filled with conversation points, educational resources and honest experiences. When we, my partner and I, bring a child into the world and a foster child into our home I feel they should be made aware of war young. I wish to bless them with the social understanding to spot words that relate or are direct synonyms of war I.e. bully, control, fear, torture, faith and jealousy. To educate children about hate and avoidance you challenge them to not fight aggression with aggression.

For example, if, and of course I hope it doesn't happen, my child is punched or harmed, I hope, rather than pushing back, they collect themselves, surround themselves quickly in other peers and cut out the cause of conflict. I hope they know to only include the peer only if they come with peace, if not an apology too. I don't believe in telling adults, and hoping they deal with it for you, as too often these individuals have been longer exposed to hate and come with anger or disparity which only enables the conflict.

When my children come home after a difficult or stressful day, after my partner and I come home from any trials, we can be faced with history and the positive acceptance that we made a better choice. We fly a flag of change however small. History is important because it helps us reflect, adapt and learn, ignoring it enables ignorance continue.

However, I didn't say that to anyone at the table, I distracted myself with "tell nothing" conversations, riddles, tried to build things from a wax candle on the table, plated my hair and signed out, not wishing to indulge mockery. Mockery is an act of teasing which if enabled, like a finger in a river, could cause a ripple effect leading to war.