On Processing Tragedy

I am typically someone who doesn’t struggle much to speak eloquently in the wake of tragedy. This one, however, is a hard pill to swallow.

I, like many of you, am struck all at once with the different variables of how to process this. First and foremost, the heartbreak I feel for Dylan‘s family and the immense grief I share with this community is most palpable. Central Florida is sadly no stranger to senseless tragedy. We are a resilient community, and one that I hope Dylan‘s family finds solace and refuge in in this horrific time.

That of course unleashes the floodgates of everything else. I worry about how much collective trauma we can suffer before we eventually become fully desensitized. I worry about how that desensitization is already affecting us with rampant callous comments about news media, reporters, and the implications that has our on First Amendment freedom of the press.

Then there’s the rage I feel about senseless gun violence and our divisive political landscape not appearing able to come to a common sense consensus that protects “We the People.” Which is followed closely by a yearning to push harder for criminal justice reform because our system is so massively broken. But we keep getting too lost in the weeds of individual morality and political buzzwords to address the systemic issues at hand.

But even typing all of this out makes me feel like I need to instantly defend and qualify every single thought I have so I’m not marred with the label of someone who is “coopting tragedy to push an agenda”. I assure you I am not. Unless, that agenda is to advocate for a bipartisan front so we never have to lose someone like Dylan again. If so, I’ll take it.

Basically what I’m trying to say is that grief and mourning and a sense of justice and a call to action can all coexist within the same person.

And if you’re feeling that way too, I see you and you are valid and you are not alone. You are not a bad person. The brain is hardwired for pattern recognition and a call to justice in response to seeing a repeating bc pattern of tragedy is the beacon of hope that means that we haven’t lost our empathy yet.