Aurora

It is profoundly profound and unspeakably devastating.  The world should stop for a minute.  We should all stop for a minute and feel this.  It’s unimaginable.  It’s insane.  It’s inconceivable.  Yet it occurred.  It wasn’t an act of terrorism outside our own borders.  It wasn’t a nefarious religious cult.  It was a lone neuroscience student.  A young man pursuing an advanced degree.  The whole world was ahead of him and yet… something snapped.  And in that moment, or as a result of it, fans of a comic book hero who with such eager enthusiasm lined up to be the first to see the latest installation of their imaginary world had a very real and very terrible turn.

Our reactions are across the board.  We each experience a form of grief no matter how close to our own hearts or lives this truly touches us.  Perhaps we blame the parents, the system, the bullies that picked on him, or one of the thousand reasons that someone could go down a path so very, very wrong.

  

We are left terrified and vulnerable.  These tragedies can take place anywhere and at any time so we pull each other near, count heads and account for loved ones.  We might take a moment to thank God it wasn’t us, it wasn’t our child, it wasn’t our friend.  We feel sad, scared, outraged …something… for a moment and perhaps take the time to voice that emotion as I suppose I am doing here.  And then… in a day or two … we put it out of our minds.  We go on back to our lives living them just exactly as before.  We send our kids to school without a prayer that a gunman won’t enter the grounds.  We take ourselves to the movies without an exit plan should an attack be waged.  We shop, we drive, we work, we live ... and in our prayers, should we have them, we rarely ask God to protect us from well-armed men nor thank Him that we are home safe and sound.

The real victims, though?  Well, they won’t be going back to life as it was before.  If they were spared their lives at all nothing will ever be the same.  As I said, it’s unimaginable.  They have had their world permanently affected.  They will bear these scars until their end.

I have no answers – no solutions – no arms to take up to prevent against the horror of an event like this. And while it’s hard for me to hear defenders of our constitutional rights to bear arms to bristle against those of us that understand all too well that guns really do kill people, it’s not time for that conversation either.  The only palpable thing we can do in hopes of preventing such atrocities, or to comfort those who have suffered, or to ease our own fears is to show compassion.  To everyone.  Rather than instilling fear and suspicion, we can encourage our children to love first and judge never.  We can teach them understanding of others, tolerance of diversity (if not a love of it) and perhaps to reach out a hand to those who seem alone or alienated in the hopes that that one act of kindness could be just enough to make a real difference.

May God bless and comfort us all.