The Helpers

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world. 
          ~Mister Rogers

It is incomprehensible to me that someone could shoot a child. That someone could shoot 20 of them is so far from anything I can understand that it leaves me unable to express what I feel. And I don't think I am alone.  Trying to understand this tragedy will result in many people giving their opinions on stuff like gun control,  mental health treatment, even health care in general and the state of our public schools. All of these topics are worthy of deliberation and perhaps they will  improve because of it. But none of the discussions will ease the pain we feel now, in the midst of the tragedy.
The families of these precious children must grieve for the rest of their lives. The soul of the community in which they lived has a huge hole in it. And it is Chrismas... the time that is supposed to be about joy and Peace on Earth. How can we even think about Peace on Earth when this kind of tragedy is so fresh in our hearts?

I have two thoughts:

First, the Nativity in Bethlehem was only part of the story. When Herod got word of the birth of a king he ordered all male children under the age of 2 to be killed. What followed was described as The Slaughter of the Innocents. When in Italy, we saw several vivid paintings that showed this-- and they were terrifying. The recent shootings of those children in Connecticut reminded me of them. And the images of frantic mothers trying desperately to protect their children. And the images of the hardened emotionless faces of the soldiers carrying out Herod's orders. The faces looked oddly familiar-- they resembled the faces we have seen on the TV. Evil exists today just as it existed then.

And second, if evil exists, what can we do about it? I refer you to the quote above from Fred Rogers, the late host of the beloved PBS children's TV show. He grappled tough subjects on his show in language that children could understand... and the quote above I think holds the key to what we can all do to promote Peace on Earth in the midst of this tragedy.

Simply put, we must look for the Helpers-- the people who rush in to help even in the midst of chaos, danger and tragedy. They are always there. As soon as the shooting occurred, a 911 call was placed and The Helpers began arriving. While there was no 911 in Herod's day, I suspect there were helpers who rushed in there too. We need to remember these helpers and assist them whenever we can-- remember the Salvation Army ringer you walked past at the grocery store? The spare change you kept to yourself could have helped that organization help others. Remember all that junk you tried to sell at a garage sale? Donating it to organizations like Goodwill help them help others.

We need to not only remember to help the official helpers, but we need to keep reaching out to others feeling pain or who are in need of help. That is, we too need to look for ways to become Helpers whenever and wherever we can. We can't change what happened in Connecticut. We can only help in limited ways - expressing our sympathies and sending our love and prayers. But we can open our hearts to people close around us and become Helpers for them.

If each of us worked to be Helpers in our own corner of the world, we would put meaning back to the ideas of joy and Peace on Earth.