I follow an eclectic group of bloggers. We all write but what we write about and our interests might be totally different. But I like looking at a wide array of blogs that feature poems, art, foods, gardening, interior design, families, etc. There are things that satisfy certain bits of what I find interesting in my own life.
One particular blogger, Justin Evans of the blog Utah Poet has simply stunned me today and saddened to my very core. Justin is a school teacher in Nevada and today he is sharing a sadness that has hit his town. When I read his post today I was struck down so deep to my core that I had a hard time thinking about anything else.
It seems so senseless. One of his students, Micaela Costanzo, age 16, was abducted and they found her body buried in a shallow grave about 5 miles outside of town. How can this kind of thing happen? How does one manage to keep going on after something like this? And how much worse is it for the people who actually knew this wonderful young girl? Justin says that she was a shining star (I think those are my words not his but you'll see what he says about her when you go to his posting).
Death of any kind is always hard to make sense of but something like this seems impossible. I posted yesterday about "impermanence" and "The Four Noble Truths". This is the ultimate in suffering. One of the truths is that "freedom from suffering comes from freeing ourselves from clinging and attachment (or detachment)" but detachment was defined to me as being cold, aloof, a lack of emotion. How can you have any of these in this kind of situation?
It seems so cliche' to say "time heals all". I know from my own personal experience that the farther I get away from something that has hurt me deeply, the easier it is for me to understand it and make sense of it. But forget? Heal? Maybe you do heal but you have a scar that always remains to remind you of that hurt.
I'm sorry Michaela, that you had to go through this. I can't imagine what you and your family had/have to endure. The thought of this happening to my Natalie or my twins would just devastate me. I'm not sure I could find meaning in the rest of my life. But, our lives are a quest while we are here. We each have different roads and different circumstances. And the reality that I know to be true tells me that they are paved with pain and suffering too.
I don't know what else to say except that things like this should not happen. I can't imagine what Justin is experiencing in his classroom, in his town, in his life. I send you love and light. That is something that I can do.
god...like a punch in the chest...it hurts...senseless...
ReplyDeleteThat is terrible.
ReplyDeleteI have a teenage daughter so now I am going to obsess over her safety until she gets home from school....
at which time I will put her on LOCKDOWN to keep her safe from disgusting people with bad intent.
Now, moving on - I see a somewhat pervy picture peeping out at me from your previous post, so I need to go check that out now.
Xx,
A
This is so sad...and speaks volumes of the sick world we are living in...so sorry to hear this. It affects many people as well as the parents and family. The kids in the classromm...the teacher...all will having life changing experiences from this.
ReplyDeleteI think the important thing to take away from such tragedies is NOT the tragedy itself [for such things can never be justified in the mind to the satisfaction of the thinker] but instead to lay focus on the beautiful soul that inhabited that body for such a brief amount of time. To remember all that was created by her and all the joy she brought to those that loved her while she was here.
ReplyDeleteIn that there is peace and in that there is love and without those things we surely will die. Focus on HER, that is what she would want.
{hugs} Dawn
That is so sad .... And it!'s especially hard for kids to wrap their heads around something like that. How do you make sense of something like that? I don't think you can .....
ReplyDeleteThese things DO happen in this life of ours. Pain and suffering are a part of living but dying at the hands of another person is scary and seems more horrifying.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what happen here (I will read the other post later) but we are a nation with a lot of angry people who believe that they are entitled to everything others have. Those that don't have it all seem to think that force is the only way to get it. We set the example in politics, war, "keeping up with the Jones" etc, etc, etc. We expect that life will be fair and it isn't. We want equality for everyone and that just isn't going to happen.
Until we figure out how to bring love, stability, self esteem and a "kind heart" to every child that is born in this world.... their will always be a child who grows up angry enough to kill someone. Since I don't see this "good family" happening for every child that is born, then this murder doesn't seem so senseless to me. It's, in fact, a direct result of anger that lives it's own life. I've seen this child. I worked with many of them.
The really scary thing, to me, is that one human being can do this to another human being. Think of the anger and hate that this requires. Sometimes it's not even personal. It's just an expression of their feelings.
Now that's scary....
A male artist friend of mine recently lost his female friend of 11 years to cancer- and my brother in law is battling cancer with chemo right now-- death is always sad, but I do remember that when my sons were younger one of my worst fears was that they would be abducted- thank goodness that never happened- but I know it is a parent's terrible fear- how sad for all involved.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear this. Yes, truly too sad for words. Thank you for sharing this, good to keep in mind each day is such a gift. Riki
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts and prayers go out to her family. Very sad.
ReplyDeletespeechless.
ReplyDelete