More on Aurora

I don't know why this is affecting me so much, why I keep thinking about it. Partly it has to do with being relatively close. I've been to the mall there, though it's been years and the last time I was there I'm not even sure that theater was there.

The way I feel about the shooting has a lot to do with my age, though, I think. Many of those killed were five or ten years younger than I am. Fifteen years even. They were at an age where their job is exciting because they are learning new things and advancing. They were at an age where life in many ways is still an adventure.  At that age you feel like you are making progress each week, if not every day.

Now I am at an age just past that. Each day I'm making an effort to hold on to what I have. I roll out of bed, not for the prospect of something good happening, but to keep the bad things, the bills and failure at work, at bay. I made a joke to my wife that night: "Want to go see the midnight premiere of Batman?" It was a joke because we were both exhausted and I would have to be awake for work only a few hours after it ended. I know that some of those killed also had to be to work the next day. At least the one girl, the sports journalist, basically had a job interview the next day. Oh to be young again.

I have a lot of swirled up thoughts and emotions about the events of the shooting in Aurora early yesterday morning. I described them in an earlier draft of something I had written as a swirl of oily black and grey thoughts. I think that best describes my thoughts now. But I had one little inky thought I wanted to share as it crossed my mind before I over-thought it too much.

There has been some effort, not by politicians themselves, but those connected to politics to make what happened in Aurora into a political issue. Politics by definition should address those issues that we feel are important as a society, and this individual act itself puts a spotlight on difficult issues that we deal with as a society and thus difficult issues that politics and politicians must rightfully address.

However, this singular horrifying act is not defined by being Democratic or Republican, conservative or liberal or if you are seated to the right or left of the aisle. This is about Good versus Evil -- this evil act against what is a good society. I imagine the last thing that a parent thinks about when being told that their child was killed because they went to a movie is just what politician is responsible. We too often take for granted that we Americans truly live in a Good society. Wherever we each fall on the political spectrum, I believe that all of us want to be prosperous and happy, want our neighbor to be prosperous and happy, and want each successive generation to be prosperous and happy and to be able to go to a movie and never feel their life is in jeopardy.

I think it will be good to have a debate about gun control and mental health and violence in society, but if you believe in God or Goodness or even simple morality this act was the born of the exact opposite of those things. This Devil or Evil or immorality is exactly what we need to take a stand against together, rather than each group with their separate agendas.