Our lives are a fragile gift. The grief that death stirs in us underscores what a beautiful thing we really have. When I was growing up TV had not been invented and radio was still in its youth. The radio gave us as much static as it did audible sound. Either by radio (local news) or by newspaper we would hear about accidents and even deaths in our local. But worldwide deaths and violence on a daily basis wasn’t common until I was an adult. The Internet, or the world wide web, has brought violent deaths and catastrophes into our homes from all over the world. Worldwide news, with violence and death, seem so common in our day that you would think that we would no longer be bothered by it. Not so, many of us will express grief at the loss of any human life. Human life is sacred. We may not know the person involved in a tragic death and yet we may find ourselves mourning for that stranger. Caroline D’Agati, said it this way; “It doesn’t matter their age, their color, or where they’re from—they were people, and that’s enough reason to mourn.” She further stated that, “In a few days, I will turn 32. If you’d asked me at 22, I would have told you that I worshiped life. I had everything ahead of me, and I planned to wring every last drop out of this existence that I could. But my joy was not for life itself. It was dependent on what I could get out of it. And when that life failed to live up to my expectations, I did not love it anymore and I cursed it, thinking of it as a trial to be endured.”
Many of us may have days, as she had, when we felt that life was too much, we were tired and may have wanted to get off the merry-go-round.
Some nights after watching the daily news on TV, I ask myself why did I stay up to watch that. It was a lot of tragic death, carnage and a lot of depressing political stupidity. At the same time that I felt watching was a waste of time, I cried when the news person described the tragic death of another human whom I had never met. It really doesn’t matter who it was, it matters that they were another person who experienced the same or similar feeling as I. They had a family who loved them and who will mourn for them. As tough and indestructible as we may feel in our youth, we have to understand that in all reality, life is fragile. It can really be said about each of us, that we are, “Here today and gone tomorrow.” Even if the today is year 10, 20, 40, 60, or even 80 years on the earth. That thought, “Here today and gone tomorrow.” is especially true when we are in our eighties.
We have to see tragedy as part of life without making it our life. We have the capability of putting it behind us where it can’t be seen. We have to be grateful for minds that can put things in various compartments: the sad, the tragic, etc. We can enjoy those aspects of life that bring us joy, love, and excitement, excitement for those things that are new and interesting and rewarding.
Generally speaking, this world in all reality is beautiful. People are wonderful. God is great. Those are the things that we have to allow ourselves to remember, things that we can put in the forefront of our thoughts. They are the things we should allow to occupy our minds. Tragedy will always be there, but to dwell on it is unhealthy, that is where our wonderful brains can step in and take over.
Yes, tragedy is a part of our lives. We bring it forward every once in a while, to remember loved ones gone from view and to have a good cry. Then we put it behind us and go on with a smile on our face while we watch a beautiful sunset in the west. Why? Because life is beautiful, life is exciting, and, too, life is sometimes tragic and short. The primary value of a tragedy, if it can be called a value, is that it testifies to us of the value of life and each human being.