And That's All I Have to Say About That.

Thoughts swirling.
Senseless.
Tears come and go.
Mainly, I can't make sense of it, so I just don't.

Will the date today be significant, or just the event?   The date a mentally ill man went into a school and killed a bunch of innocent children. My Facebook wall is ablaze with prayers, condolences, grieving, sadness, calls for less guns, calls for more guns, calls for better health care, calls for compassion for people with mental illnesses, people trying to make sense of a nonsensical situation...everyone wishing there was SOMETHING else we could be consumed with today...anything but what actually happened, because the horrificness of it is too much for any of us to comprehend.

So then I start to think.  My mind wanders and I contemplate that while today's events were absolutely, without question horrific, tragic, and in all ways unnecessary...I wonder how many other people died today.  How many other children died this week of gang violence, of cancer, of parental neglect, of things unnecessary and unexplainable.  What deaths are explainable?  Old age, I suppose...but pretty much any other time someone dies, it seems that it's pretty tragic and without sense.  This event was monumental in its scope, but does that make individual tragedies less important?  How many children have to die in one place at one time before it becomes a national concern?  I'm pretty sure every mom mourning their baby, whether in Connecticut  or in Children's Hospital, or wherever they may be, they all wail the same question at the universe: "why??"
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to negate the devastation we are all feeling over this. I've just started thinking so hard about everyone ELSE, everyone NOT in Connecticut, who lost a child today, and wondering what they must be thinking.  No doubt they are as shocked by the news as the rest of us, but is there resentment?  Is there any "Hey, my kid died too!" going on?  I can't imagine that there wouldn't be.  This is where my mind is.  Everyone is sending prayers and love and thoughts of peace and advice on how to make sure this doesn't happen again...but my thoughts are also with the rest of the world population, in which there were undoubtedly other deaths today, other senseless tragedies, like those that happen every single day.  It'd be paralyzing to focus on that on a daily basis, but I think it's important to remember that as awful as today was, and as horribly sick as we all feel knowing what happened...that there are other people who are going through their own version of hell today, and maybe sending some of those prayers and messages of love to everyone affected by tragedies would be appreciated across the board.  Just a thought.