A Range of Emotions

Six weeks? Has it even been six weeks since we experienced heartbreaking tragedy? How much do we have to experience before we get it? And what is it we are supposed to get? I have felt a range of emotions and had a range of thoughts. Certainly there is something we need to learn. 

Perspective? 

Kindness? 

Priorities?

I was driving home from the mall. I had started the second part of my day at the hairdresser. Something I had been putting off for quite awhile. I finally went, and I hated the result. So that was on my mind. Then I completed a couple of errands, one successfully, one not so much. Then it was the mall, where I managed to finish most of my Christmas shopping. The shopping went well. I figured out what I wanted to buy and found what I had in mind at decent prices. Then, as I was driving home feeling content, listening to the radio, I heard about it. 

It.

It will always be It. 

(Please let there not be anything that will surpass this horror.) 

I heard 27 people dead, many of them children.

Elementary school.

Children heard gunshots.

Seeing bloody children leaving school.

Seeing bodies of dead children leaving the school.

The wait for a child to emerge safely.

This happened 35 minutes from my home, but I don't think it matters. Well, yes, I think it does matter. I think it affected me more because of it's close proximity. Not that I wouldn't be sad, but the depth of the sadness was measured by the distance.

It felt like September 11, 2001.

Who?

Why?

How can anyone commit such a horrendous crime?

I do not know anyone directly affected by the shooting. I do not know anyone who lived in that community. I do know people who know people, however. My neighbor grew up in that town. It is a nice place to live.

It is so easy to hate.  So easy.

But I hope I don't. Ever.

I hope I just love.

Because Hate leads to 20 children dead. 

Love does not.

Let us, please, just love.