Questions About Norway, Information and Pain

I’ve been sad since hearing about the tragedy in Norway. I cannot imagine the loss, pain and trauma many are dealing with. Wanting to learn more about the victims and the attacker … I clicked through some news sites this morning.

Not sure if that was wise or not …

How does one deal with seeing the pictures of the victims? Or reading how teens lay for hours on or under the dead bodies of their friends to protect themselves? How will those teens cope with that in the years ahead?

Reading about the attacker is also heart-breaking. Seeing pictures of his parents is hard … I cannot imagine their pain. What pushes someone to such an extreme viewpoint? A viewpoint that hurts others is never correct … but yet he is convinced it was correct and necessary, even after seeing the immense pain he caused.

So now I know more … and I am even sadder and not sure what to do with the pain I feel. Yet I know my sadness is minor compared to what the people affected are feeling. How do they even breathe these days?

Not reading about the tragedy feels almost callous to me … like I don’t care about them. Yet is having more information a good thing? Does it help me connect with the pain and loss they are feeling? Would it be better to not know as many details about the situation?

What does knowing more details help me … I really can’t do anything to help them anyhow.

I have no answers. Only pain …

For so many today, life looks different than they ever dreamed it would … so it almost feels callous to say this, but running helps me deal with life, so I’m going for a run …

Hope each suffering person can do something today that will help them cope.