So Short and Insignificant

Why does it not affect us? Why is there no effect?

Each read the paper each day, we see the headlines:
4 Soldiers Killed in Insurgent bombing
Body of Ohio Woman found
Boy Mauled by Bear

They are there every morning and yet it seems to us just the undercurrents of our changing world.
It is not until it is on our zone that we realize what all those headlines truly mean.

This night two young men from my community were involved in a serious car accident. One of them paid his life this night, the other is recovering though may never completely. The one who died was the Student Boy President of the local high school. The other, now nursing a shattered wrist, was a piano player of great talent. Now their lives are changed forever, one's ended.

And in the light of all this, I feel damn stupid. Just now I feel the suffering, only when it comes into my court can I feel empathy. We feel so safe going through life pretending that the tragedies are just fiction but when we see one first hand the feeling is unreal. And who am I to talk, am I the child's parents? Can I feel the agony, the HELL they feel at this moment? Frankly I am sure I cannot even comprehend it.

I wrote, soon upon hearing of this event, to give me a chance to vent and face my feelings. The resulting poem is entitled "Misconceptions." I'd rather not post it at this time seeing as it is rather unorganized and highly emotional.

All I ask is your prayers for the families of those in this tragedy. For known reasons I have not released their names.