I have to wonder about the folks whose immediate reaction to such heartbreak, to such senseless tragedy is to get right online and plaster social media with political memes.

How terribly, terribly sad. All around. I can't even really wrap my head around it.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who just wants to do something, but what do you do, right? If you didn't know, the PTAs are having a snowflake drive for the Sandy Hook kiddos so that their new school can be decorated like a Winter Wonderland, and so they'll hopefully know how loved and supported they are by everyone around the country. A bunch of information will come up on google, but here's the address to mail snowflakes to:

Connecticut PTSA
60 Connolly Parkway
Building 12, Suite 103
Hamden, CT 06514

It's a small thing, but think about how magical it will be for those babies to walk into a winter wonderland filled with all different kinds of snowflakes from people who are thinking of them. I can personally attest to how excited kids get about just a gym filled with paper snowflakes, so.
All you need to contribute is some paper and a stamp.
And LOTS of glitter, if you are anything like me.



Edit:  I just need to say how sad I am. And how sick. And how helpless I feel. Even though it's absolutely not about me, I need to say it. And I feel so dumb and selfish because I just had the most fun weekend and have so many wonderful things to look forward to, but none of it seems to matter at all right now and I keep bursting into random tears over my finals. And I know that terrible things happen to innocent people every day, obviously. But forty-five minutes from my house? In my state? In my country? What am I doing wrong that this is allowed to happen? Why doesn't everything bad in the world make me feel this sad? Why am I thinking so selfishly when there are grieving families and devastated little lives?

I wrote this like two years ago: "The thing I like least about tragedy is the way the people in its peripherals tend to act out, drawing attention to themselves. The way they siphon what they can't get enough of otherwise. What I like least of all are the people who make the sidelines their homes, never contributing, always feeding."

And I still feel the same. But while climbing up on top of other people's tragedies like they're your personal soapboxes is inappropriate and insensitive and just wrong, when something like this happens to innocents and their families are left to grieve, it should become personal for us too. We should feel deeply for them, and it's okay to feel for ourselves too. Because, and I just keep thinking this over and over, there but for the grace of God go us.

I just want to crawl into these people's hearts and light them up. And I just had to say this.