Tragedy

Why doesn't the whole world stop in the face of tragedy?
I have always wondered it. It is always the first question I ask my mother, with the tears streaming down my face and my body trembling. I ask her: how can anyone expect anyone else to function? To get things done?

When tragedy strikes, it always leads to questions. For the religious, they question their faith, their god(s), their path in life. For the nonreligious, they might question fate or chance. Some people might even just shrug their shoulders, claiming the inevitability of life's end. But that doesn't seem GOOD enough of a reason.

So, why doesn't the whole world stop in the face of tragedy?
Why does every minute keeping beating on? Why does the sun rise and the moon swell? Why does the tide go out and come back in? Why are children born? Why do the church bells ring? Why do people fall in love? Why does the collective breath of all the people in the world go in and go out and go in and go out? Why do the minute and the practical still have deadlines, still need to happen? Why do dogs wag their tails and birds chirp and the alpha wolf howl?

How can anyone continue forward when it feels like time should stand still?

And it makes me angry, when tragedy happens. Because it shouldn't have happened. And it makes me sad, when tragedy happens. Because whether they are close to your heart or far from your knowledge, we are human and we feel the bond snap. And it makes me confused, when tragedy happens. Because why would such a thing happen, this heartbreaking, arbitrary, horrific thing?

My mother always tells me, that no matter what, she has to raise her children. She has to get up and get going. She has to eat food and drink water. She has to take a breath in and a breath out. She has to send emails and go to work on Monday and kiss her children good night.

At first, that always makes me upset. It feels like we are leaving them behind, as we march on in life. It feels like forgetting, denial, and unwillingness to acknowledge the person and the life they had. But I know she is right. I will finish this, and then go to lunch. But in my mind and in my heart she will reside. Just like I always carry a touch of sad and remembrance for all the people that have left before.

She will not be forgotten. She will not be unloved. She will be here within us and around us as we continue with our lives. Because we must live. It is not a right, but a duty, to live a life that we can be proud of and to be inspired by.

I don't know if understanding tragedy is ever possible. I don't think that even if we understood it on a rational plane, that we would be able to come to terms with it in our hearts. I think tragedy is beyond our reach. The best we can do is come together, and to look at each other and say: I don't understand.

And we will be a collection of the lost, holding tight so no one feels as if they have to face tragedy alone. And we will build a circle around the person that we have lost to tragedy, and around their family and their friends, so they don't feel alone and lost. That's the best we can do as people, when tragedy happens.

Dedicated to the Knox student we lost today. All of our prayers and thoughts are with you and your family.