How am I reacting to the Virginia Tech shootings? In addition to the obvious thoughts and feelings, the way I react to situations of horror beyond our comprehension and control is to strengthen my resolve to live and act and make decisions on everyday things, big and small, where I do have control.
We bought Grace a bike on Saturday so now she and Johnny both have bikes with training wheels that they want to ride every chance they get. Our neighbors have seen us out a lot and have seen the kids' excitement and joy they get from riding their bikes and showing them off. One couple down the street always stops and says how nice it is to see kids riding bikes in the neighborhood again, as their sons are teenagers, now driving cars.
Tuesday evening, I got home from work and Grace and Johnny were ecstatic over an anonymous gift that had been left on our porch earlier that day. "Come check out our bikes, Mommy! The neighbors left flags and horns for us! Come see! Come check it out!" David had already attached the colorful flags and bicycle horns on each of their bikes, purple and blue for Grace's and green and blue for Johnny's. Amazed, I asked David who gave us these bike accessories that had totally made our days? He said he wasn't sure because there wasn't a note.
We were both pretty sure, though, that it was the couple down the street with the teen-aged sons. We were right, but what I hadn't assumed was that it was the father's idea--that he'd been so nostalgic at seeing the excitement and joy that the bikes brought Grace and Johnny that he just had to go out and buy these bells and whistles for their bikes like he'd done for his sons over ten years ago.
People will remember this week as when the worst shooting in America's history took place. Our family will remember this week as the time when our neighbors acted in such a moving and generous way--just because.
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