Hi, Angela Noel Lawson! I think you’ve asked a perfect question. “What are these wounds we aren’t healing”. I think it’s about getting attention, in some fashion. That does not explain why some kids choose to get attention in this way.

Rhetorical questions: Is it just an easy avenue and they’ve watched others do it, even become famous?

Is it a hurt so deep that creates a desire to hurt in return?

There are so many more questions. And, we may never get the answers, but we can’t stop trying to resolve the need for something hurting at their core. Hurt, of course, doesn’t eliminate the consequences, for the ones who choose to hurt.

We inherently, I believe, know right from wrong.

I really enjoy the answer you’ve created for yourself: The only answer I have for myself is a lyric from Kathy Trocoli’s song “ Go light your world.” The lyric is “ Carry your candle, run to the darkness.”

Let’s take that light and share it. Well, said.