Sunday, December 16, 2012

Comprehending the unimaginable

Many American are hurting this morning. They are hurting because they are unable to comprehend the senseless massacre of twenty children in Newtown Conn. on Friday. Yes, six adults died in that tragedy also, but it is the children that were killed who are lingering in the minds of most Americans.

I wish people would stop trying to analyze the motivations of an evil beast. I wish the media would stop continuing to stoke and inflame the open wounds of personal tragedies so deep as to be unfathomable on any level of reasoned thinking or emotion.  I wish people would stop their incessant attempts to understand the unimaginable. There is no understanding it. Evil is not understandable, not in its purest form. 

Every time one of these incidents occurs, the so called professionals and the media personalities immediately go into their analytical mode. They want to examine the childhood of the beast. They want to interview his or her friends. They want to know what kind of home life they had. They want to know all these things and if anyone questions their motive, the immediate retort is: "we are just searching for answers."  No one ever stops to consider the possibility, if not the probability, that there are no answers.

Is it humanly possible to understand the progression and motives of a disease on a molecular level. Is it humanly possible to superimpose conscious and feelings on a disease such as cancer? Can we ever hope to understand how something so evil can function and more importantly so, do we truly want to know the answers to the unanswerable. Do we truly want to be told that it is no more complicated than evil is evil. That evil requires no explanation?

The person who committed the massacre in Newtown Conn. on Friday was evil. He was an evil so contemptible as to be devoid of humanity. Possessing an emptiness so incomplete that he apparently felt the need to attempt to fill his emptiness with the sacrifices of innocent lives on a scale that boggles the minds ability to comprehend.

I am reminded of a dialogue that passed between the Characters Wyatt Earp and Soc Holiday as it concerned what motivated the killer Johnny Ringo in the film Tombstone.

Wyatt Earp: What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does?
Doc Holliday: A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of him. He can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.
Wyatt Earp: What does he need?
Doc Holliday: Revenge.
Wyatt Earp: For what?
Doc Holliday: Bein' born.

If you want to try and get a grip on the mind of a beast like Adam Lanza, or if you are looking for an answer to what motivated Adam Lanza to kill so many and to target so many young innocent children, then look no further than the essence of evil. Adam Lanza was the essence of evil.Adam Lanza was after revenge for ever having been born.

Those like Adam Lanza have an unimaginable void in their being, much as was described in the dialogue above. They can never kill enough or inflict enough pain to fill that void and yes, they want revenge for ever having been born and to that pursuit their only answer is death and pain inflicted on others.

In the final analysis the only thing that can be done in the aftermath of a tragedy like this, is to try and provide comfort to those who have lost so much to such an unimaginable act of violence. The mothers and the fathers, the grandparents, the family friends. They all grieve and unthinkable grief this morning and they will continue to do so for the remainder of their lives.

But also try and ponder and consider the emotional trauma to those who did not know these children or their teachers. Those first responders who answered the call and within minutes were immersed so deeply into unimaginable horror that you cannot fathom how they will cope with what they saw and what they were forced to process and filter for hours after the fact. They too are forever scarred, they too are forever damaged. In the months and years that pass, many of them will decide that their pain is too much and they will leave their jobs as policemen and emergency medical technicians. They will leave their jobs or worse.

As the coming days of funerals play out and the ongoing examination of the events  are put on display, all I can think about are the lives of innocence lost. Twenty little children who will not see Christmas. Twenty little souls who did not understand and could not possibly comprehend what was happening or why.

As it concerns the beast Adam Lanza, I do not have any further time to devote to him. I have to take solace in the knowledge and belief that he is already in a place so terrifying as to easily justify his being there by all who are aware of what he did.

God allowed Adam Lanza to be born and to commit the horror that he did on Friday. the same as he allowed Judas Iscariot to be born and commit the acts that led to the death of his only son. I have to believe that in the final judgement, God will be the arbitrator of justice to those who commit the unspeakable. Just as I have to believe that these little souls that were so violently taken and destroyed, are now in the arms of angels. Born anew and enjoying the eternal presence and love of their father in heaven. 





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