The Sleeping Child

Jack Rigby stood over his precious daughter’s bed.  The weight of the world was on his sizable shoulders. As he watched his little brown-headed girl’s stomach rise and fall with her breath, she slept peacefully in a unpeaceful world.  Jack had grown up during the Great Depression. He had worked odd jobs and scratched and clawed to keep his young family together. His father had committed suicide in 1929. He and his mother had kept his brother and sister together in their house.  Then Jack married Susanne. A couple of years later, the stork made a surprise appearance and brought them another mouth to feed. Jack rubbed his temples. Earlier in the day the radio blared the shattering news.  The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Hitler was on the march in Europe.  Within two years, Jack would be on a Pacific Island no one had heard of.  Within four, he would have left his right leg on Okinawa.

The world had gone mad. How could he bring a child into this world?

The little girl grew up, married and had a child of her own.  Jackie Harris stood over her little boy’s bed and watched as he peacefully slept.  It was 1973 and the world was in chaos.  Vietnam had torn the country apart. OPEC was strangling America with an oil embargo and the economy was suffering because of it.  Within a years, the President would resign, inflation would begin to run rampant and interest rates would shoot through the roof because of it. And then there were the Soviets. She thought about the constant fear of nuclear annihilation. She remembered that frightening time during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  The world was on the brink.  She pulled the cover over her son James and kissed him on the forehead.

The world had gone mad. How could she bring a child into this world?

James grew up and like his mother married and had a child of his own.  His little boy slept peacefully in his bed like he had so many years ago.  He was six and the nation had just gone through the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression.  James rubbed his temples and thought of all that was wrong with the world. The economy, the national debt and gridlock in Washington. He thought about how polarized the country was.  And then he thought of that dark day in 2011 when terrorism bit like a venomous snake. He pulled the cover over little Jack and kissed him on the forehead.

The world had gone mad. How could he bring a child into this world?

He paused, looked at his son Jack and thought, “Because without the love of a child, fear would win and the world would cease to go on. That’s why I brought a child into this world.”  He turned off the light and went on living just like his grandfather and mother had before him.