I came downstairs earlier to find my mum sniffling in the kitchen, clearly trying to not cry. My mum is a very empathetic person and easily moved to tears by like movies or TV etc or when something upsetting happens, and sure enough when I approached her, the tears started to flow. I wrapped my arms around her and asked what was wrong (though easily moved to tears, she doesn't generally just cry seemingly at random around the house without obvious cause). as it transpired, she had not long before listened to a podcast on which a man (I assume a volunteer doctor) was speaking about his recent experiences with the people of Gaza, sharing the things he had seen, talking about children he had treated (and the things he had seen happen to children he had been unable to treat), and pondering why, still, so many people remain silent on their plight. all I could do was hold my mum in my arms as she full. on. sobbed. into my shoulder and echoed his words and despaired at the apparent lack of empathy so many seem to have when so many innocent children are suffering in this way. my mum is someone who doesn't really have any proper friends, so the main ppl she interacts with regularly in life are her family & her co-workers. she appreciates that my brother is very vocal on Instagram about the people of Gaza & Palestinian rights (my brother has never been more present or vocal on social media than he is now), and she knows that she can talk with him (or his girlfriend), my dad, or myself about this topic, but she's despondent at what she perceives to be a lack of concern from her siblings, and also the people she works with.
to be honest I don't really have any great point to make about all this, I suppose I am just documenting it because this blog is kind of a journal and frankly having my mum sob with despair in my arms is not something I'm used to so it threw me a bit :(