Witness and Prayers in the Face of Infinate Tragedy
My prayers go out for the 33, the many injured and countless friends and loved ones facing unimaginable loss in Virginia tech this evening.
They also go out to all close to Ian, a graduate of my high school a year before me who died when hit by a taxi cab this weekend.
Lastly, I must bear witness to the 33+ who die in Iraq, seemingly every other day.
Three tragedies, and I do not pretend to compare them beyond bearing witness. Though it is impossible to do so without acknowledging the inconsistancies in how our media, and our hearts respond to the first and last. It is what it is, though it does not change the value of each life lost.
I cannot dare compare these tragedies for I see the loss of any life as a matter of Infinate tragedy. For all the lives that loss shatters like a spiderweb's thread, ripping in the wind. For the God who I believe suffers with those who suffer... and most of all for each person, each life of infinate potential snuffed out like a candle in the wind.
Lastly, I pray for each of us. That the face of these tragedies, and those which will follow our hearts may not grow cold but widen. Not just break but be broken open in grief and determination to make this world one step closer to a place where tragedy can no longer find a home... or at least find the coldest welcome this side of the hearafter.
Thought I would share a quote by Albert Einstein, which seems particularly poignant today... and speaks of widening the heart. It might seem to ring hollow on a day like today... but perhaps this a moment such lessons are most needed:
"A human being is a part of the whole called by us 'the universe,' apart limited in time and space He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest---a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." -Albert Einstein
They also go out to all close to Ian, a graduate of my high school a year before me who died when hit by a taxi cab this weekend.
Lastly, I must bear witness to the 33+ who die in Iraq, seemingly every other day.
Three tragedies, and I do not pretend to compare them beyond bearing witness. Though it is impossible to do so without acknowledging the inconsistancies in how our media, and our hearts respond to the first and last. It is what it is, though it does not change the value of each life lost.
I cannot dare compare these tragedies for I see the loss of any life as a matter of Infinate tragedy. For all the lives that loss shatters like a spiderweb's thread, ripping in the wind. For the God who I believe suffers with those who suffer... and most of all for each person, each life of infinate potential snuffed out like a candle in the wind.
Lastly, I pray for each of us. That the face of these tragedies, and those which will follow our hearts may not grow cold but widen. Not just break but be broken open in grief and determination to make this world one step closer to a place where tragedy can no longer find a home... or at least find the coldest welcome this side of the hearafter.
Thought I would share a quote by Albert Einstein, which seems particularly poignant today... and speaks of widening the heart. It might seem to ring hollow on a day like today... but perhaps this a moment such lessons are most needed:
"A human being is a part of the whole called by us 'the universe,' apart limited in time and space He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest---a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." -Albert Einstein