Respect Life

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The headlines read that 8 are shot, 4 dead at a Buffalo, NY restaurant. A simple headline in just another city here in the United States.

No one will ever really register the names of the victims.

Tomorrow someone else will shoot even more people.

And we all move on. The price we pay for living free, I suppose.

Perhaps I'm on heightened alert because the past week has taught me, once more, that life is precious. People are gone. Senselessly.

And the pain will continue to crest as I continue to glance at the stories of the day.

Four high school students dead in a high speed crash. Alcohol may have played a part. Another classmate crashes his motorcycle after leaving the funeral. He dies as well.

And then through it all a glimmer of hope. Cards and letters still coming in the mail as people try their best to help my family wade through the pain of having lost another member.

And I'm not naive enough to think that the people I'm reading about won't be missed by those who love them.

"Why can't we all just go at the same time?" Sam asked me the other night.

I gave him my standard line: "Because the line to get into heaven will be way too long."

Wish my kids didn't have to think about death.

Wish the papers didn't bring it to my door.

Wonder if the line to get into hell will be even longer.

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