finding beauty in vulnerability

Dooce shared this truly beautiful piece by LGBTQ BYU students (yes, they have them, and they have a lovely Gay Straight Alliance, too) -- and I am linking to her post because her sharing of this is as important as the piece being shared.  I know just how she feels when she finds something from her alma mater to be proud of... it is a rare and beautiful thing... it shouldn't, but for me, it makes me feel better about the time and work I spent in undergraduate (not the book work) to make it a place where I would want to send my siblings or children.  I truly loved the way these students shared the struggle and the hope.  The tears just poured down my face... what courage and resilience and generosity.

A lovely story about a scholarship winner who will be the first in her family to attend college. 

Finally, a post about the lives of the people sacrificed to gun laws, insecurities and mental illness.  There is a tremendous amount of beauty in the strength and resilience of these folks despite the tragic circumstances under which we are getting to know them.  There is still too much emphasis on the life story of the murderer.  It is not that I don't care about him... I wish him healing in his time in jail.  But the important people are those whose lives were sacrificed.  Here is another piece about the quick thinking of others that saved lives. 

The people:  Ping, 24, of Oakland:   "As the oldest sibling, Katleen helped raise her sisters and brothers in the Philippines. Liberty Ping had come ahead to the United States in mid-1990s. Katleen followed in 2005, he said. "She's the best. She's the brain," Kaine Ping said. What he would miss most about his sister: "Her," he said. "Her whole life was a story to tell," he said. "The lord gave her to us for 24 years."

Judith O. Seymour, 53, of San Jose: "With her job as a tax analyst outsourced to India, Willow Glen mom Judith "Judy" Seymour had been laid off and decided to follow in her parents' footsteps by getting a nursing degree.  She was just two months away from reaching that dream ...Seymour was also passionate about her faith and, most of all, her family. Her son, Brian, and daughter, Camella, who are both in their 20s, join her brother and sister in mourning. Her parents were nurses in New York before moving to their native Georgetown, Guyana, as U.S. citizens."

Lydia H. Sim, 21, of Hayward:  "Lydia's strong interest in helping kids led her to studies at Oikos University with a dream of one day becoming a pediatrician."

Sonam Choedon, 33, of El Cerrito: "The 33-year-old Chodon, an El Cerrito resident, worked for five years in the education department of Tibet's government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, where Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and thousands of others set up residence after fleeing their Chinese-occupied homeland in 1959. When she moved to the Bay Area, Chodon volunteered for community activities and enrolled in the nursing program at Oikos."

Grace Kim, 23, of Union City: her family and friend declined to comment.  I  cannot imagine the pain they must all be feeling.  May she rest in peace, and may her family and friends find some peace as well.

Doris Chibuko, 40, of San Leandro: a lawyer in her native Nigeria, wanted this nursing degree as a way to provide for her three daughters. She planned to use her knowledge of law and this nursing degree to become a medical advocate.  She was voted class president at Oikos.

...and Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, 38, of San Francisco:  a janitor at San Francisco International Airport as he studied nursing at the East Oakland school."Tshering was a modest and caring person, he did not want to destroy lives," Namgyal said. "He chose nursing as a career choice for the opportunity it affords to help people heal and recuperate. This was not to be.""