Tonight I shopped for appliances, got coffee and bought bath towels. Mundane tasks. Mundane tasks that 49 human beings will never again do because of the choices and actions of another human being.
Tonight I changed into my PJ's and brushed my teeth before perusing social media... before reading post after post, comment after comment, blog after blog about the horrible events that took place in Orlando. I put down my phone and for over an hour struggled to clear my mind of the thoughts and images. couldn't. I couldn't stop the "what ifs" and "whys?" from tumbling around inside my head like marbles in a glass. My heart feels empty with loss while my head is full. Full of names and faces of those senselessly murdered. So now I write. I got up from my warm, cozy, safe bed... got my pen and notebook and now I am writing... thankful to have all those things and more. Now I am writing. Hoping to give a voice to those lost. I write by the light of my phone so I don't disturb others while my cat stands witness. All these comforts I have while others lay in morgues or hospitals. While families struggle to understand the "what ifs" and "whys?". I needed to write. I have never felt so compelled.
So in my glass full of marbles is where I came up with my title, "The "PULSE" of our Nation". Never has the name of one place, in one moment in time given me so much pause for thought. I believe the name of that fateful place says so much in one word. I believe it encompasses so much of what is truly at the heart of our nation, our lives, at this moment in history. The issues this one horrific act brings into sharper focus. All at once these things matter so much... and then not at all.
This shooting, this mass murder, has put under a microscope the LGBT community, gun violence and control, radical Muslim extremists. It has even touched on domestic violence and social media. It is amazing how one single night can envelope so many single issues that our country argues over daily. There are people who write, discuss and argue about every one of these topics and I am one of them. But I realized something... none of them matter. Yes they are important to some and some to all, but in the great, grand scheme of things there is only one thing that truly matters. In order to find it you must strip away all the labels... male, female, black, white, gay, straight, Christian, Muslim, gun owner, pacifist, left, right... all of them... every last one. NONE of that makes a difference. When you peel back all the labels that define and DIVIDE us, what are we all at our core? Each and every one of us alike?
Human... with every single drop of blood that fell that night we became more and more alike. No one remembered or cared who bumped into them on the dance floor or who left the best tip... because none of that matters. What matters is that in all of this we are human. Those we lost, those fighting to survive, the heroes inside and outside of the bar that helped complete strangers, the first responders, hospital staff, random strangers mourning at the site and around the globe, politicians using this tragedy to further their political agendas, you, me.. we are human.
Some may say this is an excuse to bring up gun laws, Muslims coming in to the U.S. or gay rights. I say those are all forms of control... human control. We need laws to prevent humans from purchasing guns to commit violent acts against humans whose sole desire in this world is to love another with the same rights, freedoms and safety other humans have. Humans want to control the movement of an entire religious group for the actions of other fanatical humans who believe violence is the only way.
At what point did we lose our empathy? Become so disconnected from ourselves and one another? When did one group of humans become more valuable than another, and when did other humans get so powerful to decide that?
We are every last one of us human and we are all important... even the shooter.
We are all someone's child.
I read somewhere that while the investigators worked the scene at Pulse, the bodies of the those that perished were still inside the club... while they worked, while they lived and breathed they listened to the constant sound of the ringing phones of the lost. The ringing of those phones, the cries of the loved ones reaching out for the lost. The sound of hope, fear, prayers, ringing through the now quiet interior of Pulse. The club whose name would mean so much, would forever remind us of so many issues that matter so much... and yet not at all.
Post Script:
Please, fellow humans, please, please, please... try to love one another. Please see beyond the labels and stereotypes, beyond the politics and religious ideologies. See the human standing before you. Try empathy in place of judgement. I truly believe that this is the only real way we will ever see any of the change we all hope to see.
Love, light and Blessed Be
Tonight I changed into my PJ's and brushed my teeth before perusing social media... before reading post after post, comment after comment, blog after blog about the horrible events that took place in Orlando. I put down my phone and for over an hour struggled to clear my mind of the thoughts and images. couldn't. I couldn't stop the "what ifs" and "whys?" from tumbling around inside my head like marbles in a glass. My heart feels empty with loss while my head is full. Full of names and faces of those senselessly murdered. So now I write. I got up from my warm, cozy, safe bed... got my pen and notebook and now I am writing... thankful to have all those things and more. Now I am writing. Hoping to give a voice to those lost. I write by the light of my phone so I don't disturb others while my cat stands witness. All these comforts I have while others lay in morgues or hospitals. While families struggle to understand the "what ifs" and "whys?". I needed to write. I have never felt so compelled.
So in my glass full of marbles is where I came up with my title, "The "PULSE" of our Nation". Never has the name of one place, in one moment in time given me so much pause for thought. I believe the name of that fateful place says so much in one word. I believe it encompasses so much of what is truly at the heart of our nation, our lives, at this moment in history. The issues this one horrific act brings into sharper focus. All at once these things matter so much... and then not at all.
This shooting, this mass murder, has put under a microscope the LGBT community, gun violence and control, radical Muslim extremists. It has even touched on domestic violence and social media. It is amazing how one single night can envelope so many single issues that our country argues over daily. There are people who write, discuss and argue about every one of these topics and I am one of them. But I realized something... none of them matter. Yes they are important to some and some to all, but in the great, grand scheme of things there is only one thing that truly matters. In order to find it you must strip away all the labels... male, female, black, white, gay, straight, Christian, Muslim, gun owner, pacifist, left, right... all of them... every last one. NONE of that makes a difference. When you peel back all the labels that define and DIVIDE us, what are we all at our core? Each and every one of us alike?
Human... with every single drop of blood that fell that night we became more and more alike. No one remembered or cared who bumped into them on the dance floor or who left the best tip... because none of that matters. What matters is that in all of this we are human. Those we lost, those fighting to survive, the heroes inside and outside of the bar that helped complete strangers, the first responders, hospital staff, random strangers mourning at the site and around the globe, politicians using this tragedy to further their political agendas, you, me.. we are human.
Some may say this is an excuse to bring up gun laws, Muslims coming in to the U.S. or gay rights. I say those are all forms of control... human control. We need laws to prevent humans from purchasing guns to commit violent acts against humans whose sole desire in this world is to love another with the same rights, freedoms and safety other humans have. Humans want to control the movement of an entire religious group for the actions of other fanatical humans who believe violence is the only way.
At what point did we lose our empathy? Become so disconnected from ourselves and one another? When did one group of humans become more valuable than another, and when did other humans get so powerful to decide that?
We are every last one of us human and we are all important... even the shooter.
We are all someone's child.
I read somewhere that while the investigators worked the scene at Pulse, the bodies of the those that perished were still inside the club... while they worked, while they lived and breathed they listened to the constant sound of the ringing phones of the lost. The ringing of those phones, the cries of the loved ones reaching out for the lost. The sound of hope, fear, prayers, ringing through the now quiet interior of Pulse. The club whose name would mean so much, would forever remind us of so many issues that matter so much... and yet not at all.
Post Script:
Please, fellow humans, please, please, please... try to love one another. Please see beyond the labels and stereotypes, beyond the politics and religious ideologies. See the human standing before you. Try empathy in place of judgement. I truly believe that this is the only real way we will ever see any of the change we all hope to see.
Love, light and Blessed Be