Coping With Tragedy

I'm sure that you have all heard or read about the Newtown, CT shootings. As bits and pieces of the gruesome details become public, I find that I experience an overwhelming dread for the future of our American society. I worry about the violence and evil-minded games that children are exposed to through gaming systems and violent movies and wonder how their little minds are molded by the insensitivity of games where killing is the major objective. I worry about parents who keep guns for target practice or hunting in their homes but perhaps don't take the time to explain fully how guns can kill human beings and destroy families. The young man who broke into the Sandy Hook Elementary School was described as an outsider by those who knew him from school. His mother's friends described him as having a brilliant mind but the limitations of Asperberger's disease, a disability on the autism spectrum. I have known many children with Asperberger's and they are usually the victims of violence rather than the other way around. The profile doesn't fit. There has to be more to his story, his family's story for him to commit such a heinous crime. So, no, I am not coping well with this tragedy. I feel like I can't understand the world around me anymore. When I found out about the tragedy on Friday evening, I enveloped myself in a cocoon watching the events unfold before me on the TV. I couldn't function physically or emotionally on Saturday and Sunday. My husband banned any channels that were discussing the shootings. It didn't matter because the sadness and senselessness of the shootings preoccupied my mind causing me to fall asleep and experience cataplexic episodes all weekend. Today, I am beginning to feel like myself again. I am praying for the families and asking for God's healing light to guide us all through this senseless massacre.