Epitaph

My brother called me this afternoon and informed me that Steven, his best friend had suffered a tragedy. Stevens's youngest child, a boy three years of age named Caleb, was killed today. He was struck down when he ran in front of a moving ice cream truck.

I have no words of either of sardonic commentary or poetic grief to say. I have stared at this goddamn screen for over an hour searching for such and have found none. All I have to offer are my pointless tears.

I have known Steven since he was two and I watched him grow up with my baby brother and indeed I hold him very near a younger brother to my own heart. What else can be said? I grieve though no doubt it is nothing to pain Steven and his family have had thrust upon them. My brother too…They all witnessed the horror right before their eyes…I can imagine nothing more awful.

The world burns with these little obscenities. Maybe the more of us in the world that know of them can lessen the weight of the burden carried by the few who suffer them directly. I doubt this is true but what else is left to comfort us?

The only thing I can say is that I wish with all my heart this didn't happen. To be more detailed I suppose I should say I wish this had not happened to little Caleb, Stevens family and Kevin. That is an awful, vain and selfish wish true. Pain makes us so to a small degree. What makes us Human is overcoming such vain wishes . . . To at one time wish such a tragedy had not befallen one of our own and at the same time not to wish it on any other. In the end we all are human and everyone else is our own. Ones grief is grief to all of us. Empathy for another and the ability to care raise us above the savage within. I hope any wondering eye that finds this trite little passage will take a moment no matter how brief and grieve for Steven, Stevens family and friends, Kevin and above all for innocent little Caleb.

Peace to all.