Film At Eleven

I've often heard, and wondered myself, why does God allow bad things to happen to good people. The conventional wisdom from the sensitive theist is that it allows us to glorify God.

I set out this morning with the dogs, and it was very early, and quiet. The sun had just come up. The procession of parents driving their kids to school had not yet begun in earnest.

I carried a heavy, sorrowful heart. Two people that I didn't know were murdered this morning. They were both in their twenties, and seemed like nice people. They were shot while doing a television news stand-up on location. The whole thing was captured on video. It terrifies me that I will see something too difficult to process, so I have avoided the TV news all morning.

But the news ghouls were transmitting on the AM radio band, as well. My local station insisted on airing the audio portion, and I got to the volume control knob in a millisecond.

So, while I was walking Inara and Jonesie, I felt saddened by the senselessness of the murders. And I felt anxiety at the incessant entropy, the creeping, insistent chaos that is always insinuating. And maybe a little powerlessness.

I started hoping for a logical explanation. Her crazy stalker ex-boyfriend.

I kept coming back to the glorification part. Maybe by grieving, I am participating in a greater consciousness, and through some metaphysical apparatus, we are all raising each other up. Or maybe an act so horrific compels us to be a little more loving to each other.