Monday, April 16, 2007

Sixty Bullets.


Sixty bullets from a vexed barrel, more than half met their intention.
The other half left scars bad memories that will go down in history books.
The books will spell out how devastating the massacre was.
How horrible it was, how evil the kid had to be to do such an "incomprehensible, heinous act."
And horrible it was, evil he must have been.
So evil that he couldn't have anyone to help him before he reached this place.
So evil that his mental instability wasn't noticed by anyone.
--
I feel deeply for those affected by this ghastly instance.
I also feel deeply, however, for the kid who bore the gun.
He needed help and didn't receive it.
He then proceeded to make an unmistakably irrational decision that affected the nation.

There's a poem by C.S. Lewis that I've read a number of different places that keeps coming to mind.

"all this flashy rhetoric about loving you
i never had a selfless thought since i was born.
i am mercenary and self seeking through and through
i want God, you, all friends merely to serve my turn.

peace, reassurance, pleasure are the goals i seek
i cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin
i talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--
but, self-imprisoned, always end where i begin..."

it goes on, but that's the part i wanted to highlight.
we think about ourselves so often.

suppose someone, one of us, thought about that one kid instead of ourselves.

could the outcome of this day be different?

2 think:

A said...

You have such a selfless and thoughtful reaction to all of this...which is what makes it so depressing. It's completely true.

We can only wonder what would have happened had we, as humans, thought more of others instead of focusing on selfish desires.

And it's even worse to know that it took something like this for many of to realize this truth.

"Pray and keep praying..."

Anonymous said...

no one sits with him, he doesn't fit in, but we feel like we do when we make fun of him, cuz he wants to belong, do we go along? cuz his pain is the price paid for you to belong, its not like you hate him or want him to die, but maybe he goes home and thinks suicide, then he comes back to school with a gun at his side, any kindness from you might've saved his life...
[we think alike you and i.]