PEACE OUT

I probably should have read it. The story. The one on the latest mass shooting that killed innocent people in a grocery store in Boulder. I have a general idea of what happened. But I haven’t read the articles or watched it on the news. I believe it is as horrible as the headline sounds. I believe people are grieving and asking themselves ‘Why?’ again. Just like the people that were asking themselves this question last week when the hate-inspired mass killing of Asian women took place in Atlanta. Is it crazy to want to wish we could go back in time? To last year? Wait, not to when we were first learning of COVID-19 and panic and worldwide hysteria were at an all-time high. Nor to the mass exodus of toilet paper, Lysol and Clorox wipes from grocery store shelves. But to the time, albeit brief, that people were too busy trying to figure out how to manage this strange virus, work from home while homeschooling and take virtual vacations in their living rooms. To that moment where we were a little more united in the common goal to get rid of COVID-19 and the stranglehold it had on our most basic freedoms – like going for a walk outside. There was a brief moment, perhaps it was a Tuesday, where we seemed more united than divided. There was a small window of time, maybe around the 2 o’clock hour – you know that post-lunch lull that everyone finds themselves in when they are just struggling to keep their eyes open- where we were okay. Regardless of how brief that moment was, I’m convinced that it existed. But none the matter now, because it’s gone.

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That small space we had of less pollution, more calm, and ‘Together. Apart’ spirit has left the building. And we’ve returned to business as usual. The hatred, bigotry, corruptness, injustice and unwavering self-centeredness that infiltrated top levels of leadership and made its way down to Dave, the owner of the corner grocery store is still there.  We don’t have peace. It’s clear by the way our daily lives are without it. And perhaps we’ve never truly had it. Instead just a momentarily lapse in judgment on a Tuesday afternoon.