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Image courtesy Laure Ferlita
It’s been nearly a week since the unthinkable events at
Pulse in Orlando, just an hour and a half from where I live. It feels pointless
to write about happiness—let alone simple pleasures and everyday adventures—when
we face one unthinkable tragedy after another—shootings, natural disasters,
armed conflict, suffering on a scale we can’t imagine and feel helpless to
alleviate.
No one is a stranger to suffering. Just as we are united in
our desire to live happy lives, we are also united in suffering. Each one of us
hides some kind of wound inside. We all know how it feels to hurt, feel
helpless, rage against the universe, or try to find meaning in the face of
senselessness. We should not turn suffering and pain into anger and hate,
though that sometimes feels impossible. What should we do instead?
“You take it all in. You let the pain of the world touch you and you turn it into compassion.”*
In the aftermath of the Pulse shooting, people and
organizations are turning pain into compassion. For example:
The Tampa Bay Rays have dedicated tonight’s game to the
victims of the Orlando shooting, and are donating the proceeds to the Pulse Victims
Fund. The game sold out (something that doesn’t often happen).
The Go Fund Me account for the victims set a record,
collecting more than 4 million dollars.
And more personally and poignantly, here’s Laure Ferlita’s
way of coping. She wrote: “Here's my idea—I intend to pay kindness
forward 49 times for each of the lives lost. Then I'll pay kindness
forward 53 more times for each of those injured. That's 102 acts of
kindness paid—deliberately—into a world that seems to have tilted ever so
slightly off its axis.” (Click here to read the entire post. Click here if you’d
like learn the names of those who lost their lives.)
Yes, there is evil in this world. But there is also good.
There is kindness and love, and we can decide to be on the side of
kindness and love by our words and our actions. Decide to turn pain into
compassion. Decide.
*The sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, quoted in When Things Fall Apart, by Pema Chodron.
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I’d planned a lighthearted post for today, but after the
events at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut Friday, I just can’t write about
overflowing bookshelves or what I learned about my word of the year this year. Frankly, I don’t know what words would be appropriate at this time.
All I can do is grieve for the families affected, and be thankful that my
family is whole and healthy.
It doesn’t seem like enough. I want to do something, though what that might be I don’t know. Several
suggestions are circulating on the internet, including sending cards to the
school, wearing green and white (the school’s colors) in support and
remembrance, or donating money in support of the victims’ families. This thoughtful
blog post regarding mental health issues at Anarchist Soccer Mom is worth a
read, also.
There are no words to adequately express the sorrow that we all feel. No matter what we do or don't do, we'll never be quite the same.
