My morning starts when I post El Morno on Facebook and various friends bring their cuppa and drop by to chat before they start their day. Usually the conversation is light and breezy. However, on Friday, we were all greeted with the news of the shooting in Aurora, Colorado. The idea that someone would walk into a movie theater of complete strangers and open fire on the audience was beyond the beyond and left us without words.
My evening came to screeching halt when Cole called me from the beach to say that he had been running after a ball when he slipped and fell off the beach ledge into the rocky portion of the lake. He was wet, bruised and battered; his right ankle was swollen and throbbing. The beach is about 30 minutes from home, and none of his friends could drive a manual transmission and if I drove down to pick him up we would have two cars at one location with only one able-bodied driver. To make matters worse, Cole had done a swan dive into the lake with his phone in his pocket, so he was calling me from the various numbers of people who loaned him their phones. All the different numbers made coordinating a plan very frustrating, as the kids would loan Cole their phone and then not answer the phone when I called Cole back. At one point, I was texting three different numbers and no one was texting back. I felt like I was living a logistical nightmare.
My eventual solution was a phone call to my brother-in-law (who can drive a manual transmission) and sister-in-law, who live much closer to the lake than I do, and ask them if they could pick up Cole for me. They were home, and without missing a beat were on their way to pick up Cole. Of course, during all the drama I was also posting on Facebook, and friend after friend offered help and support.
Cole arrived home wet, bruised and swollen, but all in one piece—more or less. While we iced his ankle, he told me about all the people who had immediately come over to help him when he fell. They helped him off the rocks, offered him towels and ice for his ankle, their phones to call home, and one friendly stranger even offered to drive him all the way to our house. His friends stuck by his side during the whole ordeal.
Friday morning, my optimistic view of people and the world we live in—which has always been one of my hallmark characteristics—was shaken to the bone. People were being killed in movie theaters, for God’s sake. In America.
Friday evening, however, I was shown a much different world—a world filled with helpful, generous and kind people.
There are nearly 314 million souls in this country—the vast majority of them wonderful people doing the right thing every day. Let’s not let the massacre in Aurora, Colorado drain away our faith in one another; instead, let’s remember all those that stepped forward to help and console during and after the shooting. Let’s remember the victims and their loved ones, and let’s forget the name of the shooter.
♥
It is hard to remember that most people are good and the Aurora shooting is more a reflection on the person than any one reason. I do believe we need to make owning assault weapons and hand guns illegal to everyone but law enforcement, military and such. I believe in the right to own guns just not guns that are for the express purpose of killing other people.
Well said! (good point, well made 😀 )
I hope Cole heals quickly!
Thanks! ♥
You are right..there are a lot of good people in this country..we just hear more about the screw-ups..
How is Cole ? Hope he didn’t break anything .
Good people don’t build ratings, I guess. Cole was battered and bruised for a few days but then he rallied. The worst part he said was wet cold clothes after falling into Lake Michigan. It is still cold.
KB, I too was shaken by the tragedy in Colorado. I got the news a bit earlier than some of my Georgia friends as we were all in the car heading down for a college visit at dark thirty o’clock. The shock of the tragedy, the heartbreak for the boy who felt this was a viable option to treat his pain, the heartbreak for the families….
Yes, there are tortured souls who will lash out, but as you and Cole found, there are many more who love us and walk with us every day. We just have to reach out.
It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. I don’t believe in labeling people mentally ill to excuse there evil behavior but this kid seems to be playing the paranoid schizophrenia card. i almost hope he is suffering from schizophrenia it would make it all easier to understand.
I agree reaching out is key.
Just when you lose faith in people and think that all that is in the world is evil, you have those that step up to the task to lending a helping hand without a second thought. Cole just learned that valuable lesson and I’m sure if it is ever needed he will be the one to be there to lend a hand to help others. Hope he is okay.
It was really a great experience for Cole. People were just so nice and yes I hope he always returns the favor and offers a helping hand.
It will be interesting to see how this case unfolds.
I’m so sorry your boy was injured and hope he mends soon. Thank goodness he had friends nearby, who stayed with him and helped out! The shooting shook me up, too — it’s hard to believe anybody would do such an unthinkable thing. Domer insisted on going to see that movie on opening day, too, though not the midnight showing. When he texted me that he was going, I reminded him about copycat killers, then spent the better part of the afternoon fretting until he arrived home safe and sound. All we can do is put our loved ones in God’s Hands, you know!
There is not a whole lot we can do. . .Cole did not see the Batman movie until about 5 days after the opening but went to a midnight showing of The Watch with my cousin. For the first time ever I found it hard to sleep until they were both home safe and sound. I heard a commentator recently point out that evil and these kinds of awful events are and will always be a part of our lives in one form or another and we should try and look at them like natural disasters (maybe you saw it too?) Not sure if I agree but it is an interesting point of view.