I am again reminded of the book The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, a novel that explores a group of people who are on a bridge when it collapses and who all die at one time. Why those five?
Perhaps it is for each of us to consider each day. People died in Iraq the day of the shootings and yet we are caught on a tragedy here, students, and the uncertainty that is always there, the back and forth swinging pendulum knocking down lives.
It is a reminder to live as though we'll live forever while also living each moment as our last. May today be rich and full and able to hold both startling beauty and agony, love, and pain.