It Keeps Happening
It is all too familiar. The pictures look the same. It could be Virgina Tech or Columbine or a mall somewhere. It is the scene of ambulances, SWAT teams, police officers with rifles and guns. It is young people standing around looking shocked and out of sorts and shaking their heads in bewilderment.

The events at Virginia Tech yesterday are stunning in their sameness. They are frightening in their familiarity. Even the picture of the gunman, while a different person, is still the same. The reasons are as undecipherable as ever. The media feeding frenzy as over the top as usual.

Each one gets a little more frightening in its commonness. Each one reminds us again of our mortality. Each one says that we never really do know what's going to happen when we leave home any given morning.

Or we don't even have to leave home. An email came today that a colleague and friend I went to seminary with died suddenly at his home on Sunday. He was 60 but that doesn't make it any less unexpected or any more emotional than the students and faculty in Virgina.

In the midst of all our attempts at saving lives, a friend commented last night, this kind of massacre makes absolutely no sense. We always seem to be losing the fight for life. Someone comes along and mocks all our efforts and reminds us that in the end we all pay the same price.

The causes of the massacre can be analyzed forever- and probably will. We will pick apart the life and times and attempt to recreate the mind of the gunman. Partly to help us find ways of preventing the unpreventable and partly to prove to ourselves that we aren't like that. We wouldn't do that.

Maybe not. Probably not, since most of us are not built that way. For some reason these unexplainable ones no doubt had massive brain issues, shortcomings, neurotransmitter defects that shut down empathy and compassion and knowing right from wrong. Thank God- O THANK GOD- that most of us don't have that or this world would be a far sadder and distant place than the one I want to live in.

Perhaps it goes back to yesterday's post about Imus and racism. It is always a matter of heart- or lack of it. It goes back to what one of my professors said early in his survey course of the Old Testament. Original sin is the only provable doctrine in the Bible. And he was a confirmed Liberal. That doesn't ease the pains- personal, school-wide, or national- when something like this happens. It does however remind us that we need to always be at work on two things.

First, the personal quest to be able to have a life that is different and peace-ful and able to make the world a better place. This is the life of the spiritual quest that knows that this darkness is real and yet can also be overcome by the light of the Spirit. To delve deeply into our lives with God and to find the ways of hope that only He can lead us to is essential.

Second, the personal awareness that life is short and that the ability to live it fully is within our grasp. We don't know when or how any of us will find an end. Which means we need to find the joy and hope and life abundant each day. It means saying "I love you far more than saying mean and nasty things. It means not letting the sun go down on your anger. It means walking in other people shoes and processing understanding in life.

It also means living in the awe and wonder and hope and joy and promise that each day brings. No it isn't crazy. The world may seem crazy some days. Thus we need to show a sanity in its midst, and that means to live life to its healthiest and fullest degree.

Contemporary bluegrass genius Sam Bush sang about it in one of his neatest songs, Howlin' At the Moon.

Take a little time for sunshine
Take a whole lotta time for love
Take time to praise and thank heaven up above
You gotta make music (Gotta make music)
Raise your voice it’ll be gone soon.
Take a little time for howlin’ at the moon.

Take a little time for sunshine
Take a whole lotta time for love
Take time to praise and thank heaven up above
Take your life as it may come ‘cause boy it’ll be gone soon
Take a little time for howlin’ at the moon.
--Sam Bush

Maybe in so doing we can prevent one more Columbine or Virginia Tech from happening. At the very least, the world around us will have more opportunities to be special.