No, I really have little to add to this conversation. It’s too hard and heavy and draining and I think it’s all been said and I’m not sure the internet is always the best place for these conversations. That being said, as a Connecticut native, I know I have New England readers who may not be reading all the same blogs that I love. Allow me to share my favorite responses:
- Here is a mom who has lost a child and shares what it’s like to kneel at the manger when grieving.
- In response to the Oregon shooting, Shasta calls for community.
- Rachel calls bullshit where she sees it.
- Sarah Bessey cries and curses all over the page in her beautiful, raw, poetic way.
- and a funeral director reflects on the effect of trauma on the professionals involved.
And if you feel paralyzed and wish you could do something, I give you these three very small things that I’ve done:
1. Send an email or note to your children’s teachers to say thank-you for your compassion and I honor your profession. I’ve already gotten responses and it meant the world to our teachers.
2. Share a moment of joy. It may feel awkward to hold grief and joy together. It’s not at all helpful to punish ourselves for not grieving “appropriately” and it’s so important to find light in darkness. I invite you to Beth’s blog to do just that.
3. Say their names out loud, the people who died last friday in Sandy Hook, Ct.
Daniel Barden, 7 Olivia Engel, 6
Josephine Gay, 7 Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6
Dylan Hockley, 6 Madeleine F. Hsu, 6
Catherine V. Hubbard, 6 Chase Kowalski, 7
Jesse Lewis, 6 James Mattioli, 6
Grace McDonnell, 7 Emilie Parker, 6
Jack Pinto, 6 Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6 Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6 Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison N. Wyatt, 6
Mary Sherlach, 56 Victoria Soto, 27
Anne Marie Murphy, 52 Lauren Rousseau, 30
Dawn Hochsprung, 47 Rachel Davino, 29
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Madeleine F. Hsu is of Taiwanese origin. Anyone, please put a Taiwanese flag in her memory and the pictures of a crying Chiang Kai-Shek and Sun Yat-sen, the heroes of Taiwan, Madeleine’s homeland.