Every day is a struggle and that makes it all worth while
Tisdale - Saturday, December 22, 2012
by:Timothy W. Shire
This has been a difficult week for every parent as they feel the grief of the parents and members of the community of Newtown Connecticut. For many of us who have spent our whole working lives as teachers, administrators and counsellors in schools like Sandy Hook this was a very tough experience. I called up my brother to talk about plans for New Year’s Day and we ended the conversation with lamentations about the situation a week ago Friday at Sandy Hook. He and his wife worked all of their lives as teachers, just as my wife and I have, only his wife was a grade one/kindergarten teacher.
The facts do not lighten the load of grief, the news media did its job telling the story about the shooter, his mother, the principal and teachers and then the twenty little children, just beginning their education. Very heavy stuff.
I think what really makes this sort of event really hard to cope with, is the need for everyone hearing the story, to have some kind of explanation, some reason for such a thing, we want to blame something, or somebody; guns, lack of mental health treatment, security, the list seems endless and swirling around these issues comes political and social issues that feed off of the tragic event.
Life is not tidy, things can get messy and when they do, you have to deal with it because there is no other alternative.
Yesterday there was a murmur that the world might end. Yes, that is absolutely possible, every single day of every single year. Similarly, the next trip you take in a car on a busy, or empty highway, could very well be your last trip. Things happen. On Thursday as we rolled along in a stick of traffic of dozens of cars at less than sixty kilometres an hours near Valoparsio, behind an implement dealer delivering a huge seeding outfit, we watched as impatient drivers dashed out over double yellow lines to get around the slow moving vehicle. I said to my passenger that my goal was just to get home alive. There are forces that are way beyond our control, that could make things go very bad for you and all you can do is do your best, try to survive and don't endanger the lives of others.
The ice that clings to trees, fences and wires is so beautiful. It just appears as moist air in freezing conditions creates this remarkable fleeting reality. For each of us, we need very much to appreciate the wonders and blessings, hoping they will balance off against the equally unexpected incidents that take lives and trouble us all deeply. We need to feel sadness at these times and we need to feel joy just as much, that is what it means to be alive.
