Friday, December 20, 2013

I wanna see you be BRAVE!

I'm not a fan of the current Microsoft ad campaign for their new tablet:  Play games, touch the screen, surf the web, blah, blah, blah and then they end their commercial with these song lyrics:

"Honestly, I wanna see you be BRAVE."

What the heck does being brave have to do with buying a tablet?

Do they mean you have to be BRAVE to buy their products - if so, that's a really odd marketing strategy.
Do they mean you are BRAVE when you use technology to play video games and peruse social media? God help us if that's the new standard.

I can not come up with a justifiable reason to use this word BRAVE in conjunction with any use of technology. It's such a meaningful word to be used for such a puny act. And today I have no patience for it.

Today my friends from our support group are taking their precious daughter home from the hospital, and not because she is better. They are leaving the hospital so that their sweet June Bug can spend her last moments here on earth surrounded by the people who love her in the comfort of her home.

So yeah, that might be a better use for the word BRAVE.

Choosing to unhook. Choosing to let her rest. Choosing to stop the fight because you are placing her needs are above the selfish part of the soul desperate to keep her physically here at any cost...

That's BRAVE.

Facing death, facing the end of this part of the journey. Facing the rest of your days without a part of your heart...

That's BRAVE.

Continuing to live and continuing to love after your greatest fear has been realized...

That's BRAVE.

In the last six years my life has collided with BRAVE.

Yes of course in the kids. The precious kids. The inspiring kids facing huge obstacles while still smiling - not even knowing the fight they are in.

But more so in the parents. The precious parents who DO know the fight they are in. Who DO know the stakes. And they don't run. They face the fight head on without holding anything back. Offering everything they have up to God or the universe just for their kid to have a chance. These parents who learn to give shots, and suction throats, and feed through tubes, and place catheters. Who hold through seizures, restrain for IV's, challenge the medical field for non-approved treatments, advocate for therapy, demand acknowledgement and refuse second best. These parents who love, hold, hope, cry, fight, fight, fight, and accept when the fight is over.

That's BRAVE.

I don't know what Microsoft was aiming for, but honestly, if they really wanna see BRAVE I have some names for them.

5 comments:

  1. Oh oops. Restorative not redeemable.
    Either way. My opinion stands.

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  2. I've had people call me brave. Drives me nuts. I'm fighting for myself- that's called "selfishness". Compared to many of the people I know (most of whom have children who are severe and profounder close to it), I'm not all that brave. My parents, though- what they did was brave. They fought everyday for my little brother. They fought to get doctors to listen, they fought for a diagnosis, they fought to get him integrated in a normal grade school (when he started in 1994, he was the first child in a wheelchair in our public school district, and he was developmentally delayed and tube fed, to boot). They fought to get drugs for him only available in drug studies. They fought every moment of every day for over 10 years. THAT'S bravery.

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