on sandy hook

 on sandy hook, first from an article by Judith Warner in Time magazine:
There are exactly two rock-solid, actionable facts in the Adam Lanza story. He lived in a home filled with firearms. And had he not had access to semi-automatic weapons, he would not have been able to take 26 lives in a matter of minutes.

 

and then from a 'thought for the day' by rowan williams:
there is one thing often said by defenders of the American gun laws that ought to make us think about wider questions.  ‘It’s not guns that kill, it’s people.’  Well, yes, in a sense.  But it makes a difference to people what weapons are at hand for them to use – and, even more, what happens to people in a climate where fear is rampant and the default response to frightening or unsettling situations or personal tensions is violence and the threat of violence.  If all you have is a hammer, it’s sometimes said, everything looks like a nail.  If all you have is a gun, everything looks like a target.

People use guns.  But in a sense guns use people, too.  When we have the technology for violence easily to hand, our choices are skewed and we are more vulnerable to being manipulated into violent action.  . . . .

excess

the daniel canticle:
wild excess
but, then, much of the office is like this.
which got me thinking again about some of the parables . . . .

renewal

I am yours, and I must be yours. 
I need to say this more than once a day.
without you: lost and alone.
with you: I have family.
today you told me this again.

relief!

Aaron

is there really a way back? I know what needs to be done, but how can I do it?

you make the wind sound different, and the snow look different.
without you, just snow and wind.
with you: a different kind of snow and wind . . .

but living that . . . . here . . . . in this place . . . .how?

you at the beginning and end, for a few minutes, is never going to be enough . . . .



this hole I have found - huge and dark -
isnt it merely the place where you need to be?

and you are there, but I cannot either see, or understand.
my focus has gone, and there is only one way to regain it . . . . 
but can I ever do that here?

but is it not wrong to blame circumstance?
surely it's down to me in the end . . . . .


so this hole I have found - huge and dark - is the blessing,
the gift -
because this is all that can lead me back:
and so I already glimpse - now - how you are there,
I have only to respond . . . .
and so I must, and I ask for the strength to do this . . . .
and it occurs to me that my music must play a part too . . . .
more than before . . .
perhaps because of where I am?