Heavy Heart

It’s difficult to sit in front of a keyboard and not know quite what to say. The recent events in Las Vegas are beyond imagining, let alone understanding. When the weapons of war are loosed on people at play, when human life is taken with such utter contempt---it’s easy to fall into despair. It is easy to say that we live in a sick and twisted world, that things are rotten and getting worse, that the center cannot hold. And while it’s understandable to lose heart and despair, that statement is a Big Fat LIE.

The world is not a sick and twisted place—that individual was. We don’t know his full story and I won’t use his name---but he is not who we are; his acts do not define Humanity. Humanity is beautiful.

Humanity shines in darkness.

Humanity shows up to help.

Humanity covers loved ones and strangers alike with their own bodies, a shield made not only of vulnerable flesh and bone but of indestructible, enduring Love.

Humanity stays with the fallen, giving first aid, carrying others to safety. Humanity refuses to leave.

Humanity lines up at two a.m. to give blood, and stands in lines for hours to make that happen.

Humanity weeps and mourns and comforts each other.

When Darkness comes, it is too easy to consider the black and despair. But there is Light there, 

and it destroys the darkness. You just have to look.

Fred Rogers—Mr. Rogers--- famously said of disasters “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” 

And that is true. Humanity shows up to help. And that, my friends, is a beautiful, blessed thing.