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On a clear and otherwise calm night, two flying objects that should never have had anything to do with one another collided, violently. The objects each plunged into the Potomac River, taking with them 67 human beings to an almost-instant death. Far more people in distant lands die, all too regularly, due to famine, war, and natural disasters, and we take almost no note of their fates. We don’t stop and mourn or reconsider our lives when tragedy and death reside far way, but this tragedy hit home .
It hit home for many Americans because air disasters are something that are hard to disregard. Virtually all of us fly at one time or another, for business or pleasure, so it’s hard not to feel threatened when a commercial airliner falls out of the sky. It hits home for so many because there seemed nothing extraordinary about the course of events that night—until the tragic moment. It hit home because nobody survived; everyone aboard both flying objects died. And it hit home because the plane that crashed carried two young, innocent, and amazingly talented young figure skaters returning home to the Skating Club of Boston as well as their mothers and both of their coaches.
But for me it hit far far too close to home, as two of my grandchildren, both talented and in their teens, are also figure skaters at the same skating club. Both knew their young counterparts, the coaches, and the families, and have shared happy moments with them. For the most part, figure skating is not a team sport, it’s a family sport, and even though we were some 3,000 miles away, the tragedy hit very very close to home. As much as we were saddened and dispirited by the terrible event that happened to these others, we thanked the Lord that it was not our kids and prayed that their future trips to skating competitions would always have happy beginnings as well as happy endings.
What do I take away from all this—besides a reminder to cherish my family, my children and grandchildren, because good news can turn into bad news in an unpredictable instant. First, I try to remind myself that, in spite of events such as this, the world is a good and equitable place. In small and large ways, in moments that we notice and so many others that we take for granted, people get what they deserve. Goodness begets goodness, hard work gets rewarded, good deeds and good wishes abound. Second, I recognize that not everything works that way, and it would be—in my opinion—a huge mistake to give up on the world or to constantly find blame when bad things happen. Understanding wild fires in Los Angeles, making sense of killing and hostage taking in Israel, and trying to comprehend mid-air collisions on cloudless nights are, as Barack Obama was fond of saying, well beyond my pay grade.
If the world were a perfectly equitable place, a meteor would have fallen from the sky, pierced the roof of the White House, and landed squarely on the head of a nameless politician who chose to politicize the tragic collision. Or maybe the ground would have opened and swallowed the man. Or… oh, but I have taken the bait and gotten distracted.
I’m left with nothing else but a wish for us all to stay brave and optimistic and constructive, to practice goodness and make note of all the goodness around us, to help everything positive to thrive and grow. Life isn’t always fair, sometimes in small ways, sometimes, like last Monday night, in large and tragic ways. Uncertainty exists, unfairness can sometimes abound, but it’s up to us to be strong and tough–and positive–appreciative of every good thing we receive, and resilient enough to carry on even when we get kicked in the gut.
