On A More Serious Note.....

  The last couple days I have been travelling in Connecticut.  On both days I drove Interstate 84 which took me by the towns of Sandy Hook and Newtown.  Both times, I felt a shiver up my spine, realizing I was in close proximity to the school where the horrible shootings took place, killing 26 persons, of which 20 of them were children.  Such a terrible event can shake one's faith in Mankind and even God.  You wonder how a human being can behave that way, or how a loving God can allow it to happen.  One consolation is that they are in a better place.  Another is that, with our limited knowledge and wisdom, we do not have a full understanding of the past, present, and future as well as our pre-life or the hereafter.
  Let me be clear, I am no theologian, but I do have certain beliefs that give me comfort when comfort is needed.  One of these simple truths is in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3.  You may recognize it from the song Turn, Turn, Turn that was covered by the band The Byrds in 1965:

 1. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:  2. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6. A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

  In other words, if we never know what bad is, in it's many forms, we would never know what joy is, in it's many forms of splendor.  On that note, let me close with Louis Armstrong and What A Wonderful World.