And, hell, maybe we never really did.
The more I try and make some kind of sense out of the horrific, mind numbing craziness that’s going on out in our world today, the more I think that the people committing these atrocities- these are people for whom a few key points must be true:
- No one’s feelings matter but theirs.
- They hate the world for what it is, and so
- No one deserves to have a different experience or reality
- Their happiness is unattainable.
- Life isn’t fair or worth living.
In short, they never learned how to lose.
It’s not a fun lesson, or an easy one, and some of us learned it early and well. How to accept what is, take a breath, and decide how to make peace with what is and what one can do. To find beauty and purpose and meaning even when life didn’t go the way you thought it would, could, or should.
Am I what I thought I would be? Uh, no. Not even remotely… I look in the mirror and I think about what I wanted at twenty, and no, not even close. But all those nasty knocks life gave me.. I know I had to travel through that portion to get to where I am now, and without restraint I can say every piece of it, every moment was worth it. It was all those moments of fear and doubt and pain that made me who I get to be now… and I have a deep sense of faith that all the fear and doubt and pain I feel today is going to help shape who I’ll be in ten years.. and you know, I’m pretty eager to meet that person.
Here’s to all of us who are afraid and hurt today and acknowledge it as freely as we would celebrate our successes. May we never make peace with these circumstances as being unavoidable, but instead strive to find what we can do. Let us find beauty and purpose and meaning that no life that has been lost has been lost in vain.
It’s going to take a lot more than thoughts and prayers, friends. Let’s get to work.
Curiouser and Curiouser 