Get Smart

As in Elizabeth Smart.

I'm a Good Morning America fan. Elizabeth Smart is a contributor on the show and every once in a while she'll be on to talk about sexual predators, protecting children and making your children "smart" about these issues.

I remember when she was abducted, only 14 years old and there she was this morning, a classy young women of 24 sharing her smarts. She seems a little shy and nervous but at the same time you can see her strength to accept that this was part of her life and uses it to help others. She said when she was in college someone cornered her and told Elizabeth that she wanted to stay with her abductor, she could have got away, that she wanted to run away from her home, her parents. I couldn't believe that anyone could say that to this woman. She was only 14 years old, so young, being threatened. I don't know how I would handle that at 14 years old. I would never judge this woman.

People do that, we decide, we judge others, I'm guilty as well. This person or that person did something, should have done something else, didn't do the right thing, wasn't smart. Again I am guilty of judging myself, but more and more I do try to put myself in the shoes of someone else. Not just words. It's taking everything you have, you love, who you are and throwing that out the window, into the street and picking up everything else about that other person. Be it your husband or wife, sister or brother, friend or enemy. Truly put yourself in their shoes. It's not so easy to do. Why? Because we don't know everything about other people. And yet we judge.

Elizabeth's father got wind of what happened with his daughter at school and sat both his girls together and told them he has heard them argue, scream at each other while fighting, as sisters can do. He told them that he wanted to hear them scream out loud right that very minute. Scream as if your life depends on it and if anyone ever comes up to you and corners you, puts you in a place where you can't move, fellow student or worse, SCREAM like that.

This morning Elizabeth talked about how we should not only tell our children that they should call 911 in an emergency, actually show them how, go through the motion, on a home phone and a cell phone. Make sure they know their parents first and last names, not just mommy and daddy, make sure they know their last name, their phone number, their zip code, home. Do skits with your children with every kind of scenario you can imagine, as hard as that is. Elizabeth said that 85% of those children who scream, fight back and have the "smarts", get away. That's not 100% how we want it but 85% is pretty high.

Elizabeth continues to live her life surrounding by her past. She started The Elizabeth Smart Foundation which tries to help young children avoid violent events as well as helping them to recover from any violence in their lives, yet she continues to live a happy life. I just learned she is engaged to be married. How wonderful for her. But I'll bet a million dollars, that I don't have, I am so sure, that there are many people out there who judge Elizabeth, who think that she's not happy, that she'll be messed up for the rest of her life. I don't think that of Elizabeth.

I want to Get Smart like Elizabeth Smart. More and more I try to be smart enough to know and accept my failings, my good points, that my past is my past, but it still is part of me, who I am. Smart enough to know I can turn even the worse thing into something positive and productive. It may not be what you would do, how you would handle it, how you would judge my actions. It's just what I would do, in my shoes, because they fit.

Get Smart.