Tag Archive for tragedy

A Plea to My Readers on the Road

PLEASE BE CAREFUL!  A recent tragedy brought home how a couple of non-actions can cause heartbreaking outcomes.  Family of a close friend of mine was driving home from a visit to their dying father in Denver.  An 18-year-old rammed his SUV into the back of their van, causing both vehicles to spin and flip.  My friend’s 3 uncles, an aunt, and a cousin were killed.  The tragedy deepens: my friend’s father had lost one of his brothers a year ago, and now his remaining 3 are gone.  Further tragedy: my friend’s grandfather, under all the stress, had a stroke.

What are the non-actions involved?  One was a common one.  The people killed were stretched out in the van at 3 AM while another person drove, and they, like many of us, stretched out to get more comfortable, then did not re-buckle their seat belts.  The two in the van who kept their seat belts on survived.

The other non-action was on the part of the teen driver who hit them.  He had been drinking and was drunk, and he did NOT give the keys to someone else to drive.  Thus the disastrous accident that will forever touch so many lives.

So, please be careful out there.  Use common sense.  Think of yourself, others on the road, and all those whose lives are a large part of theirs.

Ellen DeGeneres Offers Hope

I needed a dose of good old fashioned positive HOPE. Too much  tragedy, death and destruction from disasters, threat of war and fallout from nuclear-testing in my Pacific Ocean (I live in California), senseless shootings…. These are far from happy times.

But Ellen DeGeneres had a message of hope that’s uplifting without being maudlin.  If you missed it, here it is:  (Thank you, Ellen.)

Pray or Shut Up

I’m tired of hearing, “My prayers are with them.”  Not that I don’t believe in the power of prayer, because I do.  I just don’t believe THEM, the people who say this.  Sure, their hearts are in the right place; they simply want to comfort the grieving.  How many, though, actually follow through on what they say?  Not a quick “Oh, my God!” on hearing about a tragedy but actual prayer?  Too often, the victims fly out of a person’s mind as soon as he/she has uttered those words.  What would happen if everyone who said that actually DID say a little prayer frequently for the victim and family, DID hold them for a few moments every once in awhile in their minds and hearts?  I bet it would do some good for those being prayed for.  It would be good, too, for those praying, because, as studies show, a little meditation and reaching out to others makes a person happier and healthier.

 

 

Sandy Hook & the NRA

In light of the tragedy yesterday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in CT and all the previous shootings at schools, here’s a question for the NRA to ponder: Which is more important–the right of anyone to own a gun or protecting the lives of our children?