Once this was a woman with an internet following in the millions. Each person following her blog, was captivated by the gut wrenching story, about the death of her child. Her followers were full of warmth, love, and good wishes for this woman they did not know. Strangers; complete strangers embraced her, relating to her pain. What Becca was going through, struck an emotional chord in so many. These chords, so deep, so riveting, found in us all.
When it was unfortunately revealed that Becca's story was fabricated; that in fact she had deceived the public, much of her following turned on her. Angered by the feeling of being manipulated, twisted the minds of her once loyal community. Outrage spewed from parents who had in fact lost a child to the same disease, that Becca claimed had stolen hers. Understandably.
Becca claims that, although she blogged daily, as if experiencing the death of her child in the "now", the truth is she had lost her child some time in the past. Her re-telling of her story, was simply that; a re-telling of her story. Because Becca pretended as if she were going through the loss, as if in present day, many feel as if Becca is a woman who simply lied to gain some kind of sympathy or attention.
We may never know Becca's truth: Did she lose a child, or instead fabricate the entire story like so many believe? I say, who cares?
There is a larger lesson in this young woman's story. One we can all learn from. For certain, Becca has been humbled, evident by the sincere apology letter on her blog. This child has learned. She has fallen to the innate vulnerability that makes her human; the ego. Becca made a mistake. Yes, she lied. But who amongst us has never? Was this a terrific lie? Did it hurt others? Yes, but that was not this woman's intent.
Becca wrote what she wrote, because for whatever reason, she needed to. Pain lives within her, otherwise she would not have needed to do what she did. Blogging gave her a way to release whatever was hiding in this woman's soul. If you are one of those angered by her deceit, I ask you to forgive her. I ask you to rise above the temptations of anger, and continue to connect with what first attracted you to her blogging; pain.
More than ever Becca needs forgiveness. Although her blogging may have afforded her the avenue to release some of her hidden pain onto, the truth is, more than anything, this woman needs a healing. As a society, what we need is compassion. Becca falling, has the ability to help us all become better human beings. Her sin, can teach each of us something about humanity.
Undoubtedly, this will follow Becca all her days. I pray she has the strength to forgive herself. If she were my child, I would wrap my arms around her, and say, " Today is a new day. What happened yesterday is done. Let it go; move on. Learn from what has taken place, and be a better person from now on for it".
I pray the millions of followers to Becca's blog choose to offer this woman forgiveness rather than to walk with anger in their hearts. She made a mistake. We all have.
When others fall in front of our faces, it is our chance to help them back up. When we do, we raise the level of human consciousness up a notch. In doing so, we help change the world. I can think of no better way to live a life.
Becca's story presents many opportunities. She gives us the opportunity to look at our own lives, to see where we may have fallen short of our own grandest vision for ourselves. Many times, the misdeeds of others are our own thoughts not acted upon or our own actions, undiscovered. We also have the opportunity to decide, declare and demonstrate who and what we wish to be in relation to Becca's situation and any situation we face in life. Do we wish to be outrage, anger and blame? Or do we wish to be compassion, understanding and forgiveness? In my experience, the latter choice has always been of greater benefit for all involved. There is no shortage of people seeking to be offended by something or someone. I submit that instead of being offended by actions such as Becca's, it would benefit humanity more were we to all be offended by poverty, homelessness, hunger, disease, oppression, needless suffering and violence, which the above are all forms of.When all is said and done, we are all, perfectly, imperfect human beings.
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