It’s not everyday when history’s treasures sail into your backyard.

I am lucky. A few days ago Titanic: Treasures From the Deep presented by Country Financial made a stop at a large mall about five minutes from our house.

You might be familiar with the major RMS Titanic exhibit that travelled to large museums around the country several years ago. This is the same exhibit, on a smaller scale.

50 of the best artifacts were on display, including paper money, clothing, stamps, jewelry. The survival of these delicate items is astonishing. Even though I’ve seen them before, I found myself marveling at their improbability again. The crushing weight of an icy ocean couldn’t destroy these items. It defies logic and gives you the sense you are witnessing a small miracle.

I took Ryley and Sam to check it out with me. Ryley is working on a project for school where he must adopt the persona of a historical figure. He chose Captain E. J. Smith of the Titanic long before we knew the exhibit was coming. It was the perfect research opportunity.

When we arrived at the site, we were given boarding passes with names of actual passengers, along with facts about the passenger’s lives. We were all third class folk, which was bad news. Everyone knows what happened to the poorest of the passengers. Few survived. We’d find out at the end of the exhibit if we made it out alive.

As we snaked our way through the displays, I made sure my boys acknowledged each dutifully. Something goes a little haywire in a mom when she senses a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for refinement and education is in the grasp of her children.

I may have gushed to my two companions that they must, must look at the cufflinks! Look at the cufflinks! The cufflinks, boys, the cufflinks! Get a load of the cufflinks!

As an afterthought, I asked if they knew what cufflinks are. They did not.

I was very impressed by the exhibit. It was somber, accessible, and interesting. And then we died.

If you are in the Denver area, the exhibit will be at Park Meadows from April 30 to May 3, 11 am to 7 pm daily.

The exhibit will travel around the country this spring and summer. Click here to see if it will be in a city near you. It’s free and family-friendly. Put it on your calendar.

Maybe you’ll be unsinkable?

I think this will be my final post on the bully situation. I’ve corresponded back and forth with my son’s teacher and I believe we are in a good place.

Some people brush off bullying as a rite of passage we all endure. We may endure it, but it should never be romanticized as a rite of passage. Putting it on a level with a first kiss or first solo spin in the car is dangerous and delusional.

I was a mean girl during fifth and sixth grades and then I was bullied in junior high. Seventh grade was a year of zero friends, lunch by myself, tearful talks with the girls’ counselor almost weekly. Watching my son struggle brings those feelings back and makes me almost grateful for those hard times—I knew how he felt. I don’t think you can fully grasp what it’s like to be scorned by peers, and I mean scorned, unless you’ve been on the receiving end.

Bullying is in the news, too.

Yesterday, I popped over to The Thinklings and the top post was about bullying, specifically this story:

~Massachusetts 11-year-old boy commits suicide

In the comments, others shared links to recent stories of distraught young kids killing themselves over bullying. Here’s a dismal clearinghouse of the stories (all recent), which serve as evidence that bullying can be fatal:

~Georgia 11-year-old boy commits suicide

~New York 12-year-old girl commits suicide

~Bullying linked to suicides of Illinois children, ages 10 and 11

So young.

Not that suicide is less horrific if the person taking his or her own life is older, but when a kid who still secretly likes wearing footie pajamas to bed and eats Happy Meals commits the act it takes on a whole new level of tragedy.

My heart goes out to the parents and siblings of all despairing kids whose pain is so intense, they believe only death will bring relief.

I never pictured that this week I’d end up delving into the topic of bullying. It’s unfolded on its own, and I pray for my son and your kids, too.