Monday, January 7, 2013

Dark Thoughts & Avoidance


It feels wrong to finish my overdue third birthday post without saying something about the Connecticut school shooting. I have for the most part avoided news stories and blog posts. But a few bloggers have addressed it better than I can.

I really related to this from Mel in a post that was only partly about Sandy Hook:

"I’ve been trying not to think about the event itself, looking at the coverage out of the corner of my eye.  Do you know that is a preemie survival technique?  Their brains become so overwhelmed from stimulation that they cope by looking at things out of the corner of their eye instead of head-on.  So I am looking at the events at Sandy Hook out of the corner of my eye, trying to distract myself."

Maybe it’s because I was a preemie, but more likely because as Mel’s husband Josh said, "sending our children to school has always been an act of faith." Every day I send my precious daughter out into the world while I go to work. She is in the care of teachers who love her, as were the children of Newtown. As she grows older, I will have to allow her more and more freedom in the world. In order to manage fears that could easily explode out of control, I sometimes need to put my blinders on. 
I also found myself agreeing with this post I came across and this post of Jen’s that Mel listed in a Roundup.

As for how to prevent/minimize these types of horrific crimes, this post made a lot of sense to me, even though I think some of the ideas are unrealistic. If even some of them were implemented, the world would be somewhat safer. And, really, that's the best we can do.

2 comments:

battynurse said...

I really liked that last post. I feel stupid sometimes because I know how I feel about something but don't know how to argue my point to some of my more insistent "friends".

Jenna said...

Yes. Josh's words were the only thing that really made me stop freaking out. I mean, I still freak out but in appropriate ways.