Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Nothing vs. Grief

There is a line in John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off, when high school principal Ed Rooney tries to comfort Sloane Peterson outside the school, because he thinks her grandmother had passed away.  Rooney says, 'between grief and nothing, I choose grief'. Hughes made syrupy teen comedies that spoke to a certain generation, including mine. He might be speechless after last week.
J and Rollah are both parents; we can cry (and have); we can hug our kids (and have); maybe we can have some conversation with them on some level even though we cannot make any sense of the senseless.  We know there is some evil that can never be explained. Otherwise, there is only silence, and heartache. No HIGHpocrisy, no moral indignation. Just numbness. I don't know that I could choose this type of grief, because who knows what the nothing would look like. I pray I never have to make that choice. 

We're so very fortunate, and yet I just want to say good riddance to 2012.  Of all I have seen, heard, and read about these past few days, the closest to my own state of mind -- whatever that is worth -- is this.  God bless us, everyone.  See you next year.