Tragedies

The Boston Marathon, Newtown shootings,Fort Hood, etc. are so unexpected that we are rocked to our emotional core even though we cognitively know we live in an unpredictable and dangerous world. Living in the US, we can be lulled into complacency, because so much of the " bad" stuff happens elsewhere, and when we have these horrible events on our soil it still seems shocking and stunning. So far we haven't had to face daily or weekly horrors like so many other countries;it's hard to imagine the constant deadly threat of somewhere like Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan.So many soldiers come home with PTS, but we don 't expect to have that trauma on our soil.I think that as a whole we have been fortunate so far, although we all experience shared grief and vulnerability at a time like this.Nevertheless, I believe we will see more and more of these horrors in the US. We will find strength in God and each other because we have no option but to continue on.Murders,fatal accidents, freaky events happen every day, but it's a media frenzy when more than one person is involved because the serial or random nature of the tragedy can leave us saying to ourselves, " wow, that could have been me." We all feel personally affronted and involved. I can wrap my head around natural, random catastrophes like a tsunami , earthquake, or hurricane, even though they have a mind numbing death count. I can't wrap my head around the horrors of war or the intentional, evil infliction of pain and death on so many innocents. My dear brother was murdered at the age of 27, and Al's brother was murdered when he was in his 30's.You can not know the depth of that shock unless something like that has happened to you.It stays with you forever. I also was married for 15 months ( 1971-1973), when my husband was freakishly hit by a falling tree and died at the age of 22. I was 20 and devastated, but my life did not end. Time is the great equalizer, but I can't forget. I had to cope with it. Life then death, it's inevitable; we just don't like to think about it, until it happens.