What I have found in my own life is that the things that disturb me the most, that cause me to lose the most sleep, that alter my outlook aren't what I consider the out-of-the-way things, like whether North Korea or Iran have nuclear weapons or if Jon or Kate are getting a divorce.
Frankly, until a few weeks ago, I had no idea who Jon or Kate or their eight were, and beyond a vague concern about what happens to putting eight kids into the spotlight without an apparent worry over the effect of said action, I really don't care about them or any reality show contestant.
No, the things that cause me the most worry are the things that disrupt life's normal pattern, the things that get in the way of A proceeding to B.
My cell phone rang off the hook yesterday afternoon as friends and family called to find out if my wife was a passenger on the Washington Metro Red line train that crashed into another in the middle of rush hour. Thankfully, she wasn't, but 48 hours before that, I had been on that very line, heading into the city to take in a basketball game with a friend. The story, sadly, is different for the families of those who expected that life would continue on the way it does every day, with their loved ones arriving home, no doubt, from a full day of work. I mourn for them and I hope they know that millions of us, in the Washington area and around the nation and the world, share, in some small way, in their pain and anguish.
The days of recriminations and finger-pointing about what went wrong on the Red line will come soon enough. For now, let's all pray that the disconsolate discover that Earth truly has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal, and that they and the rest of us return to whatever normalcy is as soon as is possible.
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