unimaginable devastation...

I sped past my usual newsstand on the way to work, peering over to discover today's headline...Iowa City family murdered. At that point, all I wanted to do was just keep on driving down the highway, all the way over to my daughter Dove in that same city, look at her face, hold her in my arms, and be reassured of the love we have for each other. What a horrific tragedy--simply put, there are really no words. It takes me back to the memory of when Dove was little; one morning while she was still sleeping, I awakened early and went to our apartment doorway to pick up the daily newspaper to find this headline...Algona family murder-suicide. NO--not in MY own idyllically-sheltered-from-the-world hometown, not THAT family--one of the wealthiest, most high-profile in the small town's history, not THOSE kids--whom I waited on during their holiday visits home when I worked at the Algona Public Library. How did the world get so crazy?

Being famous for my "penchant for sorrow" persona, I've been reading some "positive-thinking" stuff lately, including "The Little Book of Such and Such" books by sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer--www.gitomer.com. I like them; he says quit watching violent movies and the evening news--they're way too negative. And I do agree that optimism should be cultivated in life. But sometimes all we can do when we are hit with "bulldozer" news like today's unimaginable devastation is linger in the pain at least a moment, for it is undeniable reality at its most desperate and honest. Think of all the tiny and not-so-tiny heartaches that led up to that headline, the layers of complexity that rose and rose like a house of cards believing it could withstand the wind. And yet the wind came, a bloody wind that leaves behind an aftermath for all of us to respond to, and learn from; that somehow these cycles of unimaginable devastation can be tempered with sanity and grace.

the floor is yours--tell it like you see it...