Monday, December 17, 2012

Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men

 By Dan Haring

This will be my last post of the year. I was planning on doing a sort of year-in-review, but then the tragedy happened last Friday, and it made everything else irrelevant.

How could it not?

As a parent of small children, two of which are in school, I can't think of anything more sobering or terrifying than what happened in Newtown, CT. 

I live in Danbury, CT. From my doorstep to Sandy Hook Elementary it's only 15.6 miles. To say this tragedy was too close for comfort is the understatement of the year.

I don't mention this to bring attention to myself. I don't personally know any of the victims, and thankfully, my children were never in harm's way. I bring it up because this is the closest I've ever been to anything like this. And as I sat at work last Friday, reading all the reports coming out, the only thing I could think of was going home and being with my family.

I needed to hug my kids, to kiss them and see their smiles. Not for their sake, but for mine. Just as I didn't really know what joy was until I had kids, I've never known anything remotely close to the fear I have of losing them.

And thankfully I've never had to feel the unbearable pain of losing them.

When I got home from work my kids were asleep. As I do every night, I checked on them and made sure they were snug under their blankets.

My heart broke knowing that there were twenty sets of parents who should have been doing the same thing, but who were instead staring at empty beds.

In the following days we've heard stories about hero teachers and students who saved lives on Friday, some of them giving their own to do so. It's good. We need those stories. We need reason to hope.

Especially at this time of year, especially with an event so unbelievably awful, we need something to believe in. I hope more stories come and I hope as those children are laid to rest, their parents and families will find peace and comfort.

I hope the holiday season is a good one for you. I hope the coming year has more love and happiness than this one had. I hope for more peace on Earth, and for more good will to all mankind.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

1 comment:

Jordan Dane said...

Beautiful post, Dan. I'd forgotten how close you were to Sandy Hook in your recent move. I can't stop thinking about it either.

"No foot is too small that it does not leave an indelible mark on this world."