I did not want to write about Newtown this week. But no other topic seems appropriate. Our state is in mourning. We are still in shock. We have neighbors struggling with unspeakable pain.
Because this state is small, there are few degrees of separation between any one of us and those directly harmed. As I watched the news unfold on TV in a local coffee shop far from Newtown, I learned that a neighbor who was working the breakfast counter had a sister with a child at that school, a child kept home that day due to illness. She already knew her niece was safe, she said. But I imagine such families will be grappling with the emotional difficulties associated with survival with being lucky.
