Sunday, July 24, 2011

Norway's Pain


What was he thinking when he went on a hunt for a notorious place in history? Why did he do it?

I know that people care why a lot. I don't think that caring why someone did something changes anything. It also doesn't bring any sense of comfort to the victims. Why did they fly planes into two buildings? Why did they kill their fellow classmates? Why did they snipe people off the highway? Why did they blow up a train? Why did they...do anything?

Why gives us a reason so that next time we're ready for it.

Sure that's good for the authorities to figure out, but that's not something people who are part of the circumference of pain from the event care to know about day of or days later. Shreds of their life lay sprawled out on the ground. They're thinking how to pick them up, put them back together and be whole again. They don't care for the why as much as the what now and how do you I continue living?

Lives were lost. Why someone did it doesn't bring them back. It also doesn't bring much comfort, it just raises more questions. What could I have done to prevent it? What could I have done to protect my love ones? Why didn't I just let them stay home? Why not someone else? Why didn't I say this before I said goodbye? Those are the whys, those are the questions. It sucks, because preventing him from doing what he had done is easier to notice with hindsight. It's going to be easy to blame, as well. Blaming is a fun game among siblings and friends when it comes to who left the spoil milk in the fridge or who farted, but not who to pin a freak's decision to spread pain in the heart of Norway.

It's his fault. His reasons are not reasons anyone needs to worry about right now. Healing is the option that best fits. Anger is broiling. Bad decisions are birthed in anger.

I wish that news outlets would choose this moment to find out anything they can about the victims and speak about the victims' lives that were cut short and how great they were. What they wanted to be. What they consisted of, not what this inane human was made up of. Human is stretching it.

I believe that healing is the best course of action for a nation or community dealing with this sort of devastation. In healing together, they do fortify themselves for the next wave of pain. Having a great source of comfort in people who uplift those around them allows a situation like this to heal instead of scab, but never forget.

The victims of this Norway event are important. Their stories are important. Their lives, no matter how short they might have been, are important to many people. Sharing those stories on the news instead of worrying about what sparked this onslaught will show that if you kill, you do not get to bask in the glory of the media's love-fest from jail or postmortem.

It is not going to happen, but I can hope.

Norway has a fairy tale-esque feel to it. Bad things like this don't just NOT happen there, they're most likely NOT supposed to happen there. It's hard to hear the death toll rise. It's hard to think that it really happened.

I don't have much to offer Norway. I do hope that stories flood the news of the victims and their lives more so than news about the destructive evil that brought about pain and suffering. I want to know about the victims. They're special because someone thought they were and are and everyone should know of them. It is the least the world could do.

Picture.

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