Where DO we go from here?

Photo by Veit Hammer on Unsplash

I have walked in cemeteries and found gravestones that were a perfect expression of grief. And many of them were also peaceful, and this always seemed contradictory to me. How do you come to peace when your heart feels trampled upon? Yet under certain circumstances, peace may be the only thing to come to that makes any sense. After yesterday, I pray I come to a place of peace. The alternative is abject despair, and that never gets you very far.

Like most of us, I was horrified to see the news of yet another assassination attempt, this one at least unsuccessful. Like many of us, I watched as the footage was replayed over and over. At first, I watched former President Trump and the secret service around him and the blood that was on his face and the raising of his fist in the air before he was pushed into a waiting car. Then I began paying attention to what was going on behind him, the faces of the crowd, the direction many of them were looking in. Of course I was wondering what EXACTLY had happened. Who had shot him. HOW had the person shot him? Over and above all of these questions, though, was this one: will it EVER stop?

I talked to my partner. I talked to my friends. I wandered around my house. I pet the dogs and the cat. I made dinner. I watched the news and the news and the news. Finally, my partner asked, do you want to watch a movie? And I agreed to watch a movie, but not before I said that I found it extraordinary that such an event could happen and we could be so blasé as to say, oh well, let’s watch a movie, pass the popcorn. I said, this is how inured we have become to horrific events.