Life

"Sorrow makes us all children again - destroys all differences

of intellect. The wisest know nothing."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every now and then you get a wake up call from life. A kinda Chuck Norris punch to the face. Be it news of a personal nature or a world event. Both can shake you up and make you rethink your outlook.

Think about how you felt when you saw the news about the Kennedy assassination, the Challenger explosion, and 9/11.  All three are events that defined not only single lives but also the lives of a whole generation.  Now think about how you felt when you got news that hit closer to home, on a personal level?

The Kennedy assassination is nothing more than a historical event to me at my age. Even the Challenger tragedy was so early on in my life that  while I know I saw it happen live, it didn't really impact me. September 11th, 2001 on the other had was a whole new experience.

When I was woken up that day by my roommate, who told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, it kicked off about 48 hours of continuous news coverage and sheer shock.  The scale of the event was something that I had never witnessed before. With the exception of maybe the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995.

That event changed my outlook for many months. A few weeks later when I was at a Chicago Bears game I found myself thinking about the event as a "soft target" and trying to plan out my "escape route". Both of which were thoughts that never crossed my mind before the attacks of 9/11. Heck, I'm not even sure if I knew what a "soft target" was? All I knew was these were the things I was thinking about as I watched the planes fly around Soldier Field.

Granted there were people who dealt with the events of that day on a more personal level than me. But, half a nation away I was still affected. It was an event that brought a global threat to a central stage. A strike at the country that American truly hadn't dealt with since the attack on Pearl Harbor

Personal tragedy can also be a shock to the system. A wake up of tectonic proportions. The end result of which is not necessarily loss of a loved one.

I still remember the day that my parents showed up at my work to tell me my cousin had died or when I was told at school by them that my grandfather had passed. 

When my parents showed up at my work to tell me about my cousin I knew it wasn't going to be good news since they were both teachers and since it was the middle of a school day there was no reason for them to both be stopping by. It's that kind of unexpected news that kinda rocks you the most.  For some reason I don't remember showing much emotion at the time I was told. But, about 8 hours later on my drive home I lost it...hands down no holds barred lost my emotional grip.

With the news that my grandfather had passed it was a little easier.

We knew he had been sick and was having surgery, but it wasn't expected for him to pass when he did. Even given the unexpected nature  was easier. Sometimes you get leveled with a wrecking ball. It knocks you down into a hole that you may feel you're unable to escape from. Other times it's just a minor course correction in your outlook.

You may feel like an event or news really has no impact on you...but you spend the rest of the day thinking about it. Or, you may wake up a few days or weeks later and think, "why didn't I react to that?" Grief is a funny animal like that. There is really no rhyme or reason to its impact.

In both cases I have found that it is important to surround yourself with good friends and family. Don't let the grief rule you. Embrace it, for a time. Allow it to help you realize that which you have. Don't discard it, learn from it.