A Matter of Life and Death
The juxtaposition of life and death has kind of haunted me the past couple of days...heavy on the death side, obviously.
I thought about writing on the VaTech subject. It scares me, frankly. My husband and I both went to very similar schools...large, state, public schools, that are easily accessible. It frightens me to think of how vulnerable I really was, how vulnerable my friends were, and still are. This could have easily happened at any major university in the country. It bothers me that, especially since the shooter killed himself, everyone is looking for someone else to blame. The boy removed himself from the aftermath, from the healing process that comes with the process of justice. It was this man's fault. The school may have not done everything they could, but remembering back to my schooldays, it would be incredibly difficult for the university to react and respond and inform students quickly to any major incident. They didn't cancel classes on 9/11 until around noon. It wasn't the gun's fault, it wasn't the school's fault, it wasn't the students' fault, it wasn't his family's fault, it was this one student and him alone.
Last night I was watching a rerun of one of my favorite shows...Scrubs. The subject of the episode was the balance of life...when someone dies, someone else has the chance to live, even if the situations are totally unrelated. The doctor lost a patient waiting for a heart transplant, but an emergency C-section saved the lives a mother and baby. The doctor was talking with the heart patient about death. I'm sure someone in her position was forced to deal with the thought a number of times. She said she imagined death to be like the finale in a Broadway show, everyone singing gloriously to the rafters on their way out to their final bow. A lot of the show takes place in the doctor's imagination and as she died, he saw her singing. Quite an uplifting view, actually. Not sad at all.
But, the idea of this balance didn't click with me until I heard the news today. Today the US Supreme Court upheld, and effectivly enacted the law that bans partial-birth abortions. It was signed into law a few years ago, but has not been really recognized since there were already 2 cases in progress in State Appeals Courts on that issue. Those are the 2 cases heard by the Supreme Court last fall, and the ones this decision goes to directly.
So, amidst the tragedy of death, we are also getting news of the promise of life for the future. Today, I heard the Lord in the voice of that heart transplant patient, singing her finale (Colin Hay's, Waiting for My Real Life to Begin)... "But don't you understand, I already have a plan?"
I thought about writing on the VaTech subject. It scares me, frankly. My husband and I both went to very similar schools...large, state, public schools, that are easily accessible. It frightens me to think of how vulnerable I really was, how vulnerable my friends were, and still are. This could have easily happened at any major university in the country. It bothers me that, especially since the shooter killed himself, everyone is looking for someone else to blame. The boy removed himself from the aftermath, from the healing process that comes with the process of justice. It was this man's fault. The school may have not done everything they could, but remembering back to my schooldays, it would be incredibly difficult for the university to react and respond and inform students quickly to any major incident. They didn't cancel classes on 9/11 until around noon. It wasn't the gun's fault, it wasn't the school's fault, it wasn't the students' fault, it wasn't his family's fault, it was this one student and him alone.
Last night I was watching a rerun of one of my favorite shows...Scrubs. The subject of the episode was the balance of life...when someone dies, someone else has the chance to live, even if the situations are totally unrelated. The doctor lost a patient waiting for a heart transplant, but an emergency C-section saved the lives a mother and baby. The doctor was talking with the heart patient about death. I'm sure someone in her position was forced to deal with the thought a number of times. She said she imagined death to be like the finale in a Broadway show, everyone singing gloriously to the rafters on their way out to their final bow. A lot of the show takes place in the doctor's imagination and as she died, he saw her singing. Quite an uplifting view, actually. Not sad at all.
But, the idea of this balance didn't click with me until I heard the news today. Today the US Supreme Court upheld, and effectivly enacted the law that bans partial-birth abortions. It was signed into law a few years ago, but has not been really recognized since there were already 2 cases in progress in State Appeals Courts on that issue. Those are the 2 cases heard by the Supreme Court last fall, and the ones this decision goes to directly.
So, amidst the tragedy of death, we are also getting news of the promise of life for the future. Today, I heard the Lord in the voice of that heart transplant patient, singing her finale (Colin Hay's, Waiting for My Real Life to Begin)... "But don't you understand, I already have a plan?"
posted by BekABoo | 11:48 AM
7 Comments:
I'm with you. I am stunned by the tragedy. Yet the news of the Supreme Court decision gives us the hope of life being precious!
Thanks for this great post.
Awesome post sweetheart! he always has a plan...
that's HE with a capital H..:)
Great post !!
Deborah
How amazing that God gave us both such a similar theme for our posts! Hope...what a beautiful word!
Great post! And you are right, it was this man's fault. Just like it's anyone's fault who decides to shoot someone. Everyone has a knowledge of good and evil. It's impregnated into us by God. People do seem to want to blame someone or something else, like video games for example. Sorry, but I don't buy it. It doesn't help granted, but there are thousands of people who grew up with video games that depicted violence, yet they turned out to be respectable people. This man may have had problems in the head, but it no way excuses what he did. And it never will.
Hey, we need a new post!
Post a Comment
<< Home