Beyond Words

Life isn't fair.

Says who?

What makes anyone believe we deserve good fortune?  Or complete happiness?  Where do these entitlement issues derive from?  Who decides the definition of fair?


I have my own thumbprint.   

So do you.

It's all mine.  Never to be replicated again.  Nobody has or ever will have my thumbprint.

I am unique.

So are you.


Yesterday was a bad day.  Ask those 20 parents in Connecticut.

Everyday is a bad day.  For someone.


I spoke to a friend yesterday.  Very briefly.

"Just heard from a close friend.  Her 6 year old was killed today."  That's what she told me.
"I'm sorry."  It's all I ever say when confronted with tragic news.
"Beyond words," she responded.

Conversation was over.

Beyond words. 
She's exactly right.  People talk too much.  Especially, after bad news. 

So, you wear your heart on your sleeve.  So, what?  Shut up. 
Compassion, empathy, whatever we call it.  It's not unique to mankind.  It's expected.  It's inborn. 

Unless, you are the man gunning down children in a supposed sterile environment like an elementary school.  But he is uncommon.  He doesn't represent humanity.  

But he has his own thumbprint. 

Like you.  Like me.

Broken crayons.  On a blood soaked canvas.  Yellow suns blackened.  Mommy and daddy, smiles gone.  Stick figures come to life.

Small town USA, awake. 

Christmas is coming.  Wrapped presents now cause a stir.  A dilemma.  Do they return them?  Do they save them as a reminder of what should have been?

Guns.  Security.  More laws.
Everyone has an opinion. 
Nobody has a solution.  Because there isn't one.

In a school where God is no longer allowed, huddled teachers cried His name.

America, land of the free and home of the brave. 
Freedom is dangerous.  Bravery is its best defense.

Let's put a name and a face to the tragedy.  Let's make it come to life.  Beyond words.

Victoria hid her students in cabinets and closets as the gunshots echoed in the hallways.  When the gunman entered her classroom, she told him the children were in the gymnasium.  He callously shot and killed her.  Then, off he went.

Children saved at her expense.

She had a black lab named Roxie.  She loved flamingos and the Yankees.

She had her own thumbprint.

She was more than that.

Beyond words.