ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING: A TIME TO GRIEVE
On Friday, December 14, 2012, I sat down in front of my computer to write this week’s blog post. The week before, I had written a very popular post titled, Conflicts with Ourselves: Lessons from Charlie Brown. Because it already had more views then any blog post I had written, I thought I would write another one using some other comics that featured the same lovable character.
Just as I put my fingers on my computer keyboard, a little message popped in the lower right hand screen of my monitor from my email account. I glanced over to it–Elementary School Shooting: 20 Children Dead.
Moments later, I was sitting in front of my TV screen watching the gut- wrenching images.
At one point, a camera showed a young woman who may have been one of the mothers whose child was killed. The anguish and horror on her face as she listened on a cellphone led to tears streaming down my face.
I was unable to write any blog post that day. The following day, Saturday, I tried again to put some words together. But waves of grief kept flooding through me as if all of the flood waters from Hurricane Sandy were washing through my soul.
It’s now Sunday morning. Again I’m trying to put some words together. Somehow, a few are making it up on the screen.
I feel an urgency to write something. In our culture of way too much violence, lessons on how to deal with insults, anger, conflict and respect are certainly urgently necessary, even more urgently necessary then before we were all struck by Friday’s horribly gruesome story. And yet, at this point in time, to present such a lesson is beyond me.
I’ve decided to take a little time off.
Next week, my two grown-up sons will be coming home for a visit. With the memories of Friday’s images flashing before us, I don’t expect it to be as joyful as most of our past holiday season gatherings. Still, we’ll spend some time together, meditate on all that is right in the world and all that is not as right as we would like it to be.
Then, after the New Year, I’ll get back to doing my small part in trying to teach less violent, and yet far more powerful, ways to resolve our life problems.
Until then, may we all find some ways to bring some peace and goodwill into the world.
My Best,
Jeff
Some people will enjoy reading this blog by beginning with the first post and then moving forward to the next more recent one; then to the next one; and so on. This permits readers to catch up on some ideas that were presented earlier and to move through all of the ideas in a systematic fashion to develop their emotional and social intelligence. To begin at the very first post you can click HERE.
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