Human kindness is overflowing, and I think it’s going to rain today. -Randy Newman
That song has rattled around in my head today.
It’s haunting.
Are we failing each other?
But people are good.
Aren’t we?
Well, what about the news out of Ohio today?
I’m brought to my knees by those images of loss, of desperation.
Unrelated, but in the same day, I saw a picture of returning solider, hugging her child, weeping.
Knees again.
People sacrifice, they give. They’re good.
Aren’t they?
I’m supposed to have faith.
But… so many people do unfathomably awful things. Is that necessary, in this business of free will and choosing of paths? Does the evil have to run so deep, so dark?
Knees again.
~
The truth is, my first inclination was to ignore the CNN alerts on my phone this morning. I’m not proud of this, but I was in no mood for bad news.
I didn’t sleep well last night, and while reading (in a failed attempt to make myself sleepy), I was overwhelmed by the pure, kind actions of a character in my book. It was only fiction, but still. This man, this character, he showed such compassion when compassion was not easy. I was in tears.
So I woke this morning after too little sleep, yet feeling buoyed by the amazing goodness of people. Feeling in awe of our capacity for kindness and empathy.
I didn’t want to think about the other side of things. Tragedy was not on my agenda today.
If only. If only things worked that way. If only we could Pollyanna our way through life.
But clearly, as the song goes on to say, a lot of people are lonely, so lonely, and – I’m paraphrasing here – feel like a tin can being kicked down the street.
How is it, I wonder, that if we are capable of so much, of actually overflowing with kindness if we choose, that yet another child is dead? Did the shooter ever receive kindness, or did it pass right over him?
~
Because it’s so lovely and sad, I wanted to include a video of Bette Midler singing I Think It’s Going to Rain Today, but I had embedding issues. If you’d like to hear it, click here.
Lapsed homemaker. Looking to hire a full-time housekeeper who will work for the sheer joy of a job well done and free coffee. Interested parties, DM please. 
This is a very nice post (for lack of a better word). I often wonder if the news focused more on the good lighthearted, and tender stories would the world be any better? Are people really that desperate to reach out? I think they try indifferent ways-perhaps that boy’s attempts (via FB) were the only clues. Do we not give our children the tools to speak out/reach out? Are we so focused on their perfection and success that we do not allow them to fail? I watched a video on TED yesterday (Brene Brown on vulnerability) and the part that stuck with me was that our children are not born perfect. They are beautifully imperfect from the beginning…perhaps we should embrace that…I know I’m all over the place. But this was a nice post and made me ponder ;0).
I have avoided reading too much about what happened in Ohio. I had a sick boy home yesterday so the TV stayed on other depressing shows such as SpongeBob.
The evil and sadness in the world are absolutely unbelievable. I’m studying Revelations right now and am saddened to think that a time will come when there is more evil than good.
And like you I often escape into books. Amazing how they can buoy my spirit. Even fiction.
xoxo
News is depressing. I think if it was good, it wouldn’t be “news” – sad. Some good news makes the airwaves, but not enough.
I escape with books too.
My son is 14. My daughter, 12. Every day I send them off to school with the blind (Pollyanna-ish) faith they will be okay.
Otherwise, I couldn’t function.
I wish there were answers to your questions; unfortunately, violence like this is so difficult to understand, and – even under extreme circumstances – difficult to excuse.
I understand that these people are in pain; but for them to then inflict pain on others (either literally or figuratively) makes no sense to me. It betrays a lack of empathy there that I would hope exists in most people.
An “I wouldn’t wish this kind of hurt on my own worse enemy” mentality, you know?
I will never forget a student in my senior English class who began acting bizarrely for a few days; weird outbursts of temper, strangely confrontational behavior. I do not remember the exact trigger, but one day he lost it and started yelling at another student. He stood up and pushed his desk over then headed out the door shouting.
I was terrified because he seemed so unstable. I locked the door to the classroom and called down to the office at which point he tried to get back into class and started banging on the windows and door. He threw trashcans and cursed. Loudly.
Eventually, he was escorted away and I don’t recall if police were called or what the exact events were.
I only remember being called to the office the next day and his father apologizing to me saying “this isn’t like him” and “he’s had a switch in meds” which I hadn’t even known he was on.
I recall wondering if someone like that could or would get a gun and come back to school. But I comforted myself by rationalizing that instances like this are rare.
Still. To those who are the victims, and to the families of the slain, these attacks aren’t rare enough…
Very depressing. I’ve felt that way all year living here in Austin. So many murders, hit and runs, etc. it just makes me shake my head in unbelief.
If we couldn’t look out for the best in people, and hope for the best of every situation, we’d just lock ourselves in the closet all day every day.
There are times that I want to hide from the news, too.
I often avoid reading the new because I can’t bear to read about children getting harmed. I’d rather live in my bubble with the blind faith that everything will be okay and it’ll never happen to me or my kids.