Healing starts after rough week

The bumblebee buzz of the Formula 1 cars on television is a welcome relief after the events of the past week.
It is a sign that things are returning to normal; that whatever mayhem has occurred will not and has not stopped us from living our lives as we always have, with hope and expectation.
Last week started out with the normal chores. Then came the call from my daughter, “Did Jane run the Boston Marathon this year?” Jane is our niece and my daughter’s cousin. She has run the Boston Marathon once or maybe twice and finished in a little over three hours each time. I told her that I didn’t know, but since I hadn’t heard anything about it that I doubted she ran this year. I thought she had progressed to the ultra-long distance marathons or some other such insane challenge.
That’s when my daughter asked if I had heard the news. I hadn’t. She told me bombs had been set off at the race. Thus began the week of unimaginable tragedies.
Thankfully, Jane had not opted to run in Boston this year. We contacted her via Facebook and were reassured that she was safe. Another of her cousins had run and was also safe. We heaved a sigh of relief that was quickly followed by prayers for those injured and who had died.
Then there was the explosion at the fertilizer plant in Texas. Thankfully, it was in a town far away from where my daughter and her family lives. So many lives lost. So much hurt. So much destruction.
There were letters to government officials that were thankfully intercepted before they could cause harm.
There were earthquakes across the world that took even more lives.
There was a shooting at a marijuana rally. Really? Isn’t that stuff supposed to make one mellow, not cause yet more senseless shooting?
One after the other, the news reports delivered bad news. It was almost too much to bear.
I try to write this column on Friday or before, but this Friday I, like much of the country, was glued to the television and the internet as the chase for the alleged perpetrators of the Boston bombing intensified. One of the boys had already been killed. The other was still on the loose.
We were incredulous as some of the family members described the boys as angels and talked about the suspects being framed by the government. Didn’t they have videos, photographs and eyewitnesses that confirmed that these two boys had committed these horrendous and cowardly acts? Then, we realized that we might have the same reaction if one of our loved ones had been accused of doing this.
Now, the worst is over. Those involved are in the process of healing, as are we all. Jane is scheduled to run in the Glass City Marathon in Toledo at the beginning of next week. She has vowed to run in Boston next year.
No matter how many atrocities we inflict upon each other, the sun always rises in the morning. Every day we have one more chance to get it right, one more chance to prove that good guys always win.[[In-content Ad]]