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Friday, February 27, 2015

A Tribute To Tyrone, MO: Small Town Tragedy

    I suppose I could use some of that mantra from the news. "Lots of people dead, world ends." - Bad News Tribune. But I'm not the news. I'll let them handle the bad news hawking. It's their ware, after all. It's what they sell. I don't want to sell it. Someone else can do that. I suppose I do have bad news, though it's all bad news you've already heard, so technically I can't sell it to you. The bad news is news created by the world, this physical manifestation that we live in. We have to live here. We deal with this. Right?
   Some people don't. This is an unfortunate, but true aspect of regular life. There is always a silver lining, but if it can't be found, there seems to be no point. We try to keep going, we strive, we try. We really do. And to be honest, I herald all of you who just try. That's actually much more impressive than the people at the news are willing to concede. If you're trying, congratulations. The battle is already half won. Keep going, I beseech you.
   But not everyone can do it. Not everyone can make that leap and say, "Hey, here's that silver lining. That's good. Now let's keep going, so maybe I can find another silver lining, and perhaps, just maybe, someday I'll get rid of the cloud. But the lining is there, so this is progress." Not everyone has that valor, that courage. The courage to merely withstand this world can be so forlorn, so hard to hang on to. Life is hard. We get that. I get that.
   But don't take it out on everyone else. Please, don't. It doesn't work that way. This world is hard, and harsh. It really is. But we have to hang in there. When we let go, when we actually just lose control, we lose what little benefit we can offer this world, to ourselves. We can't let go. We have to keep going.
   If, by now, you don't know what I'm talking about, let's talk about that. I spent a good part of my childhood in a small, remote community named Elk Creek. Up the road from there was another, small, remote community named Tyrone. On Thursday even, Feb 26 2015, a man named Joseph Aldridge gunned down seven of his neighbors after coming home to find his mother dead. It is not currently known if this is what sparked the incident, as he was involved in some drugs. For seven neighbors to be taken away from this tiny neighborhood, where everyone literally knows everyone else, and for this atrocity to happen literally beneath their noses, is something that will send anything to the world-rattler cage. These people, through a cruel twist of fate, were taken out of our lives, for worse. No one deserves to die in that manner. It just stinks for uselessness, as if nothing better could be dished out from the Petri Dish of Fate for them.
   Of course, it's not useless. It's so complicated, this world we live in. They didn't deserve to die this way. But, one way or another, and this is very complicated to say without it sounding negative, their lives were not lost in futility and their lives were, I believe, not taken away from us to torment us. I believe that, even in this horror, we can find meaning in life still. We have to keep going.
   We live in a world that is full of uncertainties. We try to take care of some of these uncertainties. To show: We don't know when it will rain, so we build a roof. We don't know if that substance is actually  bad or not, but we remove it anyway; we remove an uncertainty. We obtain education to try to secure better jobs; we try to remove as many uncertainties as we can. But nothing can prepare a small town community, normally used to leaving their doors unlocked because they know everyone, to defend itself against bombardment from an insane neighbor.
   We can try to make the world a better place, and we should. There are a lot of specifics I can throw out there, but few specifics are ever actually that helpful. Perhaps abstractions are better. Blunt abstractions. Let's try this one: "Stop worshipping the self and acknowledge the other." Abstract because it applies to much, blunt because "stop" is used. Stop what? Chasing money, personal fame, sex? You decide. Who is the "other," you ask? Just anyone aside from yourself. Our society glamorizes success and personal achievement. Stop forcing people to think they have to do it all. We don't have to. We have to live. If we stop living, when we stop having the desire to live, we lose. Hang on. Stay strong. Keep going. I sound like a self help book now, but it's true. Just don't give up. Even when all is lost, there's still something. There's always something. That doesn't mean it isn't hard. Of course it's hard. Maybe it's supposed to be. I don't know why, and I don't expect you to either, but there it is.
   So, what do you say? Let's remember the dead, and honor them by doing the right things, beautiful things. Let's go make the world a better place together.

References
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/us/gunman-kills-7-people-in-tyrone-missouri.html?_r=0