It’s easy to fall in love with a baby. They idolize you so readily, love you without abandon. They never doubt your love for them-not even for an instant. A child’s Sun and Moon rise and set on you, their Family. Their love is pure and unconditional. It is not derived from proof but from faith. Unconditional love, in turn, risks becoming the soil in which the selfish sow their needy seeds blind to the pernicious crop they will one day reap. I do believe this was a young Casey’s fate. I believe it was a legacy that Caylee was born into as well. No one in that house felt unconditionally loved by another. Everyone criticized all the failings of the others, many hurtful and unkind things were said and done. The redemptive quality of Caylee’s untainted love became her value to the family.
Deep down every person inherently knows that love lies in accountability and forgiveness. I think it's obvious to all that these were the qualities most lacking in that household. It became easier to rely on the source of “easy love” to fill the void left behind than it was to own-up to the conditions imposed by the other members. Caylee reassured them that they were "good" and "worthy" of love. Caylee was a refuge from the superficial love and demands that unnurtured relationships had wrought upon them. The validation Caylee’s love provided them superseded her own needs as a person. Caylee was reduced to a possession doomed to be fought over for the term of her innocence.
Unfortunately, the forces that drove their love for Caylee were predicated on their own needs being paramount. I doubt they recognize the honesty in that, and of course Caylee did not have the ability to challenge her place. Caylee's needs were simple, pure with the ignorance that a young life brings. The Anthony's needs were complex and rooted in a lifetime before she ever existed. They were needier, more selfish, more powerful. They coveted the love of Caylee because ultimately they knew... a million people could love her, but only one person could love them.
My heart breaks as I write this because I think we are all guilty of using a child this way at one time or another. I hope it's designed to remind us of the humanity we are all born with and our own capacity to love others the same way a child does. I weep for the child that lost her young life and I weep for the Anthony's, yes Casey too, for the love they lost that day... a love we all need. They had a duty to protect the source of that love, to recognize the right to life for the beautiful little person that lay beyond her qualities.
Caylee will live on in the purity of her love, both for the Anthony's and the rest of us who know of her only in death. She loved, unconditionally, the Mother who took her life and the family that stood by and let it happen. She loved those that we cannot. If there is any solace in the taking of her young life it could be found in that purity kept intact, and not the inevitable degradation of that quality a future with her role models would have surely brought.
Caylee Marie, killed in the absence of protectors, may you become a beacon of all the beauty of an innocent child’s love. May you always be a reminder to protect the other beautiful Innocents of our world. Such a grand purpose for such little shoulders.
Be strong and carry on, Little One. There is nothing but love for you now.
