Opinion: ‘In a world where we can be anything, just be kind to one another’
It has been a strange week. While people continue to get back to ‘normal’ and society opens up a little more each day, there is a definite buzz about the place.
It was brilliant to see third level students return to Cavan Institute this week, while other local students spread their wings and headed off on their third level adventures, at last, to universities and colleges all over the country. It’s hard to believe that some of them, starting their second academic year, had never set foot on the campus.
We wish them all the best of luck in their studies and the next chapter of their lives and hope we can close the dark chapter on Covid, isolation and remote learning. You cannot beat face-to-face learning and physical interaction with other human beings.
Young people have lost so much over the past 18 months. Their lives have been put on hold; their personal development halted; their in-person social connections severed. It’s time for them now to shine – to get out and embrace life – and how wonderful if was to see so many of them on campus at Cavan Institute this week and out and about town.
But that joy and excitement was silenced this week in the wake of a number of sad and tragic events.
The death of a young man, by suicide, in the Drumavaddy area has shocked the wider Cavan community and devastated a family.
Eden Heaslip from Carrickaboy had only celebrated his 18th birthday two weeks previously.
Analysing the ‘why’ in such sad cases is, in some ways, pointless. It won’t bring Eden back. A young man is dead, his life – full of potential – cut short. His bereft family are left to pick up the pieces and try to move on with their own lives – an empty chair always at their table, a void forever in their hearts.
If nothing else comes from this tragedy, parents should take an opportunity to talk to their children – young adults, teenagers and tweenies.
The words of Canon Mark Lidwill are a good guide: ‘In a world where we can be anything, just be kind to one another.’
It is a simple message but great advice. If you teach your children nothing else, teach them to be kind. The best way to do that is to lead by example.
And young people also need to know that, if they are in a dark place and having suicidal thoughts, suicide is never the answer. There are so many people and organisations they can reach out to for help and support if they are uncomfortable talking to friends or family.
Let us try to spare another family from going through this unimaginable grief and save our sons and daughters.
Life can be heartbreaking at times but it is also full of endless and wonderful possibilities.
As we move past the pandemic, we should all embrace it.
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