Sitting here in contemplation of the brutal hatred that occurred in Las Vegas in the last 24 hours has left me wondering, “What can I do?” I try to limit my exposure to too much media in these times. I find it can be traumatizing for me. But the few minutes that I did tune in this morning the news says that there really is no way to prevent such an attack: “The public needs to report anything that they hear or see or witness, even if it is joke…” well, this doesn’t make me feel very safe. In all honesty, occurrences like these are incredibly jarring because they leave me feeling so utterly out of control. I realize that, in reality, I have NO control. And while this is a shocking and scary realization, it is also somewhat freeing. If I can’t really do much to prevent these horrendous acts of terrorism then I can turn my attention to what I can control.
So what can we do? We can love each other more than we hate these attacks and the attacker. We can join together and continue to unite in the face of terror. We can find the beauty in our world, even when there is so much ugliness. We can hug our loved ones a little bit tighter and longer today… and the next day. We can be kind to the person in front of us in the checkout line, because we don’t know their story. We can work passionately for the causes that we find important. We can continue to help those that have been affected by the recent natural disasters heal. We can donate blood. We can recycle. We can send goods to disaster relief missions. We are not helpless, if anything, we are resilient.
So take a moment, an hour, a day, a year, whatever it takes, and grieve for the losses which we incur on a daily basis. Sit in sadness, mourn the lost. But let us resist the temptation to let the hate in our heart grow larger than the love. Don't allow hate to breed more hate.
Love each other harder today, my friends.