Wind-strewn, tree branch buckled, black dawn—the first day of winter, the last day on the Mayan calendar and the world is still here, barely. Electricity out all night but back on –for now. Twenty-six church bells for the victims of the senseless mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Everyone asking ‘why’ and what happens if there is no answer to ‘why?’ I keep coming back to the serious mental illness of this shooter, of Tucson’s, Aurora’s as much as I do to the easy access to military assault weapons. 

Though on guns: Why does anyone outside of law enforcement need to own a semi-automatic anything? Why?

And why did no one try to help this sick young man – we now flag kids who need extra educational resources and support them; we now mainstream physically and developmentally challenged students; we have interventions for kids who abuse drugs. But we let young men in their late teens and early 20s and who are most likely showing signs of suffering from serious mental illness have target practice or buy guns? Is this how the world ends?

 

Or, (because I have to end on beauty not pain) as the great American poet Robert Frost asks does it end in fire or ice?   

 

 

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.


But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate


To know that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

     --

 

Thoughts and prayers to all the Newtown families --