Sometimes you have to write it all out anyway. You find yourself going through the motions, doing these things that need to be done in your daily life, but all the while the back of your mind is spinning. Your head is reeling. Your heart is breaking.
There’s a reason I don’t regularly watch the news when it is like this. As humans we have become a society of violence. We hurt each other, we maim and kill one another, we perform the most unspeakable acts towards one another, and at 6 and again at 11 we can see it all. I used to read the most horrific novels, ones of terror and horror, full of autopsy reports and details no one should ever really become aware of. I can’t do it any more.

Maybe now it will change. Maybe now there will be people all over that realize, when they watch the news from abroad that there are people who are hurting just like they are. That people have gone through much worse, even. And then maybe, just maybe, we can collectively stand up and say, I’m not going to sit back anymore. I’m not going to sit back and quietly watch, tsk tsking and then putting it out of my mind. I’m not going to say what a shame and then get on with my own tiny little life.

The press of humanity is all I can feel. The pain of a whole world crying out. “My god, my god, why have you forsaken me,” some are shouting, but he hasn’t. He can’t just pull us up out of our own mess. We have to do that ourselves.

We have deadened our senses to most of human suffering until now when it is in our own backyard. Maybe now we can look at one another and not see different skin, a different sex, different beliefs. Maybe now we can look at one another and see a human just like us.

And then, maybe when we realize there are those out there who have no respect for human life, a deep need to forcefully put upon their opinion to others, those who feel the need to eliminate others just because they’re not like us, maybe then we will realize they are not entirely human at all.

What do we do now? I’m not really sure. I guess we can start one person, one human at a time. The next time I see a heart breaking, someone hurting, I’ll stop and help. I won’t step over the homeless man. I won’t turn away when someone smacks their child in public. I won’t be quiet when someone makes a racist comment. I won’t stand by and let hate continue. And most importantly, I will teach my children to love others anyway.