Blessed are the Fighters

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

When I was reading my RSS feed, I came across an essay entitled Blessed are the fighters, for they shall inherit good funerals. In it, a funeral director explains how, in his experience, those individuals who live their lives fighting for what's right, sticking up for others, taking risks on others' behalf - those are the people who have wonderful funerals, full of stories and love. These are the funerals where you walk away from the service really feeling that you knew the deceased, and how they affected the lives of others. There's nothing vanilla about these funerals.

Which naturally made me think of Moe, and her memorial service.

When the Smart Man and I were planning Moe's service, the Funeral Director wanted to know how many people we expected. And we woefully underestimated the number of people who came - people came out of the woodwork. Friends. Family. Teachers. Workmates. Some of them spoke, in addition to her family members.

And what struck me about their comments and their attendance at her service was everyone's perception of her not only as a fighter, but as a person of strong passions and beliefs. Moe always felt everything very deeply, and was determined to try and make the world a better place. She wore the label "Social Justice Warrior" with discernible pride, owning it as the compliment it was, rather than the insult the misogynists and bigots would like it to be.

She fought for justice wherever she saw injustice, whether she was the person who was wronged, or not. From a parental perspective, this righteous indignation always filled me with pride, in addition to the irritation of having to deal with her school officials. She was never one to back down, and sometimes decided on a cause that may or may not have been a bit morally ambiguous. But I admired her grit, and her courage in facing social justice issues inspires me to fight, as well.

Blessed are the fighters, for they leave the world a better place than when they found it, and inspire others to do the same.

1 comments:

Laur said...

A young warrior of the fourth wave, gone too soon. So sorry for your loss and the world's loss too. I didn't know Moe but think of her every day, often as I see other young women picking up the banner and striving to fix the wrongs and injustices of life.