Should we reconnect?

One thing that Facebook has done has allowed us to reconnect with people from our pasts. Without Facebook I might never know what the girl I knew in third grade is now doing with her life. I bring this up because I recently friended and old boyfriend. This is where it gets sticky. He's had a tough go of things over the past several years and it just sort of depressed me. It got me thinking. Wouldn't some things be better to just keep in my mind as sweet memories from our pasts? Before this he was forever in his twenties and partying. Seeing him as someone middle aged and with real challenges in his life seemed to erase all of that for me. I worry that there will be real changes to our lives if we reconnect with those who were best left in the past.

Today.......

Today we have received some terrible news. A young girl from my son's middle school has taken her own life. After out toddler is in bed tonight we will gather the older three and break this news to them and do our best to answer any of their questions and allay their fears. At the same time we must implore them to come to us with any problems they have and to trust that we will help them to find the solutions. To let them know that mental illness is a terrible thing and if it strikes it can make you believe that a terrible outcome is the only outcome. Today I am hurting for that child and her parents--and dreading having to bring this terrible and adult issue into the lives of my own children.