Wednesday, October 19, 2005

I knew that come Monday morning, I would most likely not see my dean, nor one of her clerks. The clerk is a member of my church. And she is expecting. She will be gone for a while. And missed. The dean's sister was in critical condition. We knew to expect her to be gone for about a week and soon. Now was the time.

But what I arrived at on Monday morning, while I was still struggling to shake the scales from my eyes and the sleep from my step, was unexpected. Ladies were crowding around a print-out news article from the internet. Somebody, I knew this much and not much more, on staff, was killed. It would take me a moment to find out that this lady was Ms. Jones, the dean from the floor directly above us.

Now, at this point, I had already heard a lot about the gang violence, including security guards who had to make certain calls to certain people to clear their way before they arrived in their own neighborhoods and homes. I never assumed that that was the issue here. I'd like to thank God and my own raising, which taught me that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. But then I wouldn't be fully honest. I think I was just slow on the draw.

Her husband murdered her, and tried to murder her son. He was known to be violent. She tried to divorce him. She had restrictions on him, based on his violence.

How do we protect ourselves from the evil influences within and without? The days are evil. The revelation is that I'm only seeing what the truth is. Mothers against daughters, husbands vs. wives, sons against fathers. This generation (not just my supposed generation, X or whatever other label we are given, but humanity in general) is wicked.

Yes, there is plenty of good stuff happening in the world. Plenty of those ah!! moments. But sometimes you just have to face the utter terror in the world. It's scary. But it's reality.

And it doesn't need to be.

Father, teach me to love, completely.

2 comments:

  1. This...

    is a wake up call.

    I just went to a book reading/book launch last night. The book 'dragonslippers' was about abusive relationships, and how the progression of verbal/emotional abuse leads to physical, which ultimately leads to death.

    This is sad. So, so sad. How is the son? It must hit like a ton of bricks to get news like that.

    Dang man...I dont even know what else to say.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i haven't heard word since day 1, honestly.

    apparently, she (mrs. jones) kicked him (the elder mr. jones) out because she didn't want him to bring a gun into the house. and then came the restraining order.

    and then this attempted double homicide. which ended with the cops taking his life.

    all of the teachers, and apparently quite a few of the students, bought, made, signed and added to cards. there were tons of them in the office the other day.

    violence, sadly, is at hand. and it's kind of scary how the school is getting so violent and one of the administrators dies so violently and they're not really connected. except to say that there's - like you hinted, chris - patterns of recycled and rising violence.

    these days, we need to hear and live,
    peace,
    j.

    ReplyDelete

Be kind. Rewind.