Edge

In the aftermath of yesterday's assault on the Boston Marathon, we try to parse the facts from the speculations. We tiptoe around graphic news reports on the violent dismemberment of the victims.  We are inundated with details of catastrophic injury and suffering:  photographs of sidewalks swimming in blood; footage of bleeding people, faces frozen in shock or mouths open in agony, being rushed from the scene in on stretchers, in wheelchairs, in the arms of strangers; descriptions of the multitude of severed limbs and tourniquets and gore and maiming.  And yet, we have absolutely no information at all -- who is responsible, why was it done?  It is the most brutal of contrasts, to know so much and yet so little.

One of the trickiest aspects of such a man-made disaster is to know how much to tell the young people.  Much as we would like to shelter them, it is unfair and ultimately unkind to do so, for they may then be woefully underprepared when faced with catastrophe. They must learn: though humanity can be magnificent, it can also be unbearably cruel.

Now, Offspring the First and the Second are legal adults, and are in charge of monitoring their own intake of news footage and of forming their own opinions.  Their heartaches at human tragedy will primarily be shared with their peers rather than with their parents.  Herself has faith that they will traverse the dust of this tragedy's fallout without allowing it to permeate their souls, and that they will be able to adjust their  viewpoints of the world without giving in to despair.

Offspring the Third is a slightly different matter.  At fourteen years of age, he displays all the affectations and pseudo-jaded attitude of a middle schooler.  Within his chest, though, lies a very tender heart. When he was small, he would be rendered tearful and heartbroken by small slights or minor misfortunes of other people or animals.  He has matured quite a bit since then, and taken on the bravado of teen boy. How much does he still take tragedy into his own heart? We do not know; our best guess is that it is still quite a bit, though.

The challenge now is to provide Offspring the Third with sufficient information about such disasters while he is in the safety of his home environment, so that he will not be surprised to hear tragic details from his peers at school.  At the same time, we must help him to learn to distance himself from the horror just enough to protect his heart from being pierced through.  It is vital that he retain his warm and generous nature: the world is a better place due to people who care.  Nevertheless,  he cannot let Evil eat him alive -- it is thus also essential that he build himself a suit of armor to avoid being paralyzed by the malignant spectres of the world.

It is a delicate balancing act.  We are all walking the tightrope of humanity, just above the abyss.  Who will catch us if we fall?

Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit down at the same table with its worst horrors.  ― Andrew Boyd

Picture copyright 2012, 2013 Mediocria Firma. Used with gratitude.