Bad things happen to us every day. Trivial things (today I cried because I forgot my Apple ID), and monumental, life-changing things (I also drove past a horrific car accident, the outcome of which I truly think would have been a mortality). As we grow older we get exposed to the things that we were protected from as children; the things we only ever imagined to appear on a movie screen come to life in front of our eyes. But we’re not characters from films. We’re human beings. With shit emotional skills and limited resources and often an inability to be able to move forward from what has inevitably caused some sort of internal disruption.
This is a strange thing to be writing, but this is a strange week (and it’s only Thursday). On Monday I saw somebody get taken very ill, very quickly, in fact I thought I was going to see a dead body. I’ve never had to think about that before. Then the “Ferguson” jury made their decision and in doing so made history, because the outcome just seems so… Well, predictable, in a roundabout and shameful way. And then just now, it has been announced that the cricketer Philip Hughes has passed away after a freak accident during a game. He was 25 and a great sportsman, and just like that his light has gone out.
My thoughts go out to all of the people involved in all of those events but I can’t help but be more generally pensive at the moment. For a rigorously logical person like myself it’s hard to think about this type of occurrence because there is no rhyme nor reason to it, and I tend to go into overdrive (case and point, it’s currently nearly 6am and I’ve not slept…). And if I’m honest I really wanted to write something borderline inspirational here about dealing with nasty things but nothing’s coming to me, nothing at all.
I think the Brown family have it right though: they released a quote earlier about channeling frustration in a way that makes a positive change. I assume that they’re feeling so betrayed at the moment but they’ve taken the time to try and instil hope instead of hatred. And that is an admirable thing.
Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.