Open Letter to Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay, I realize you don't know me and that you are probably being given advice from a lot of people. In fact, someone may have already said these same things to you already. Humor me and read what I have to say.

You are a talented, beautiful young lady. You are also strong, which is evidenced by just the little I know about you: you have been able to achieve success in a highly competitive industry all while you have dealt with some difficult family situations. Take pride in this. It is not easy.

You must stop looking for happiness outside of yourself. You will never find it. In fact, when you look for happiness outside of yourself, you will only find trouble, grief, and disappointment.

You have to start giving back to the best friend you have ever had: yourself. You are the one that has gotten through the tough spots in your life. You can do it again. In order to get past these recent mistakes you have made, you need to reach inside and ask yourself for the help to do it.

Be good to yourself. Be proud of your accomplishments. Learn from your mistakes. Be happy in who you are. If you need to change something, do it. For yourself. Be the friend you so desperately need.

Consequences

My neighborhood is reeling from a horrific car accident. On a very busy thoroughfare (four lanes of traffic, two in each direction), someone saw a parking spot on the opposite side of the street. She decided to make a u-turn across three lanes of traffic, and failed to negotiate it. She slammed onto the sidewalk, critically injuring one and killing another (the details of the injuries are too awful to delineate here). The site of the accident is directly across from a municipal parking lot. This woman now has to live with the fact that at least one person is dead because she needed a parking spot.

Technically, the word careless means indifferent to the consequences. We use the word careless when we forget to pick up the dry-cleaning; or when a child forgets his assignment pad. I've called myself careless on those occasions when I have gone to the grocery store for milk, but walked out with $35.00 worth of groceries and no milk. In none of these examples, has the person been forgetful or lacking in the face of consequences. But the woman who caused the accident committed a traffic violation, willingly, because her needs were paramount. She needed a parking spot, and she was willing to risk a ticket to land it.

The horror is that she risked so much more. She risked people's lives. She was truly careless: she was indifferent to the consequences. Of course she couldn't envision that she would take a life, but when she failed to care about the consequences of crossing three lanes of traffic, illegally, she opened the door to the probability of random, indiscriminate consequences. And while she has to live with that fact for the rest of her life, I'll venture that the families of both of her victims are not consoled by that.