Taking Care of Business

News Update: Virginia massacre gunman named

It is really easy for us to read these news articles and feel apathetic towards things. We see violence, death and disease every day on our beloved television, and yet sometimes we become so desensitized to it... it's so surreal for us because we're watching it safely behind those little 'windows' to the world (t.v., computer screen, etc).

I just happened across the above link this morning browsing my Google Homepage, and although I know that yesterday's horrible Shooting at Virginia Tech isn't exactly breaking news at this point, something just struck me... this morbid, odd feeling.

If you look at the photos of the people, the students, the victims, the loved ones of those who were massacred, they began their day just like any other day the same as we did. Maybe they stopped off at the gas station, and maybe had their morning cup of Starbuck's Coffee, they prepared for their day with that same early morning daze that most of us do, with a renewed spirit from the day before and with plans and hopes of what to accomplish that day.

They may have washed up their morning dishes, or they may have left some things disheveled in their homes thinking "Oh, I'll do it when I get home." Their affairs (legal and otherwise) may or may have not been in order. They may or may not have left things on a good note with those closest to them.

We lecture ourselves and our fellow bloggers all the time about things like this, but sadly it's only when we are reminded by these unforgivable and unforgettable tragedies that it once again 'writes home'.

Perhaps you left the house this morning in a mad rush, had an argument with your parents/spouse/children or others, made the morning commute while sipping your coffee taking for granted that the day would be long and you would return tonight accomplished. Maybe you left this morning, taking for granted you would finish your day satisfied after a good meal with your family, maybe you too thought that whatever you'd left undone, whatever hard feelings there were, you'd take care of it and surely make up for it tonight when you return home?

To all those who didn't make it home yesterday as planned, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family... for the rest of us, here are some 'points to ponder'...

Life is eternal, and love is immortal,
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
~Rossiter Worthington Raymond

If tears could build a stairway,
And memories a lane,
I'd walk right up to Heaven
And bring you home again.
~Author Unknown

“Instead of weeping when a tragedy occurs in a songbird's life, it sings away its grief. I believe we could well follow the pattern of our feathered friends.”

Corita Kent: Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each, is to succeed.

"My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music." -Vladimir Nabokov