At the end of the day, trying to understand the mind of a mad man is a lesson in futility. People will start debating various ways to stop situations like these. Although I hope there is an easy answer, I truly believe there isn't one. Nothing terrifies me more than a person determined to cause harm to others. They will always find a way. It's a helpless feeling. One that has brought many tears.
What can we do?
We can show love to everyone we care about, even to strangers. Let's all make a real effort to put as much goodness as we can out there, to both honor those who died and to try and tilt the balance back to good as much as possible. And we can pray. In whatever way you choose to, we need to keep the families in our thoughts and hearts.
It's a time to perform as many random acts of kindness as you can. I'm going to try, and I plan to share them here. If you would like to join me, please share them as well.
I'll be back to goals and writing tomorrow--I did make some progress, but I'll catch everyone up on Wednesday--but today I wanted to focus on what matters most to all of us... life and the people we love.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families affected by the events in Connecticut.
5 comments:
I love your idea about the random acts of kindness. Surely the only way to combat the Darkness is to bring more Light.
I was shocked, like so many, when I heard the news and my heart goes out to the victims and families affected by this tragedy too. ),:
I'm doing my best to spread some holiday cheer via my blog. Winning something always makes people smile :) WRITE ON!
We all will find a way to work through this. Some of us will take action politically. Some of us will pray. Some will write. I love this idea of honoring the memory of those who died with random acts of kindness. There has to be a way to move past the near hysteria of Fox News. Thank you for suggesting this.
I understand where you are coming from...
I am very willing to commit random acts of kindness (I consciously choose to, anyway). I replaced my stock of purse stickers yesterday. I keep these in my purse, and, when we are out and about and see a parent and child having a difficult, tense moment, the kids will often offer one to the other child, which tends to defuse the moment without confronting the other parent...
I resist labeling the young man (little more than a child himself, by today's standards) as evil - or as anything.
To me, a huge component of tragedies and acts like this is the psyche of the person who perpetrated them.
What is it that made this seem like a reasonable or even necessary act for him? What was broken within him? What did he need, if he might have been different, more peaceful?
How can we avoid breaking others this way?
I think kindness, peace, and love are the answers...
And most especially for children...because no adult exists who did not first live through a complete childhood, and my own life has shown me how easy it is to break a child.
If I had not been born with very strong empathic awarenesses, I might have been driven to do something similar. I was a bullied outcast at school, I was often humiliated, minimized, and abused at home.
I bear deeper scars than I am likely to ever discover, and I am not now the woman I might have been.
My full potential was sacrificed to my parents' pain and rage - pain and rage borne of their own abusive pasts...
My deepest purpose in life is to stop this from carrying forward into my children's lives. Nearly everything I do, as a parent and as a person, is geared to that goal.
In the end, I feel deeply that the only real prevention lies in healing...
Peace, love, and gentleness be with you and yours.
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