Gracenotes on Virginia Tech
Tuesday night, American Idol began with a somber word of condolence from Ryan Seacrest to the grieving members of the Virginia Tech community and to a nation baffled by the violence that took place there. He used the expression, "tragic events," without further explanation. That is all well and good: it is a family show, after all. And it's Ryan Seacrest, for heaven's sake.
But one is left to wonder about the best way to categorize and characterize such acts of inhuman cruelty as Sunday morning looms ahead of us.
Should we call the murder of 32 and the suicide of one "tragic" when the event was not accidental? Are words like "horrifying" or "unspeakable" too soft? Are combinations of such expressions*"unspeakably horrifying tragedy"*too hyperbolic?
What we have before us is a case where a person who was diagnosed to be mentally disturbed, and known to be deteriorating psychologically, gained access to weapons that never should have been within his reach. He did something so terrible that words do not suffice. We must, at times like these, rely on symbols that come from our traditions: Symbols that transcend words and capture our emotions so that we might begin to see the light of healing.
People look to churches and other faith communities to provide them with words, but words are not what we most deeply need in times like these. As Gilbert Bond stated in his Jonathan Edwards Society lecture here earlier this month, in the midst of trauma, we find recourse toward new life through the symbols that capture our pain and help us to break the cycle of trauma's silencing.
The prayer I pray for Virginia Tech fails to arrive at words. Therefore, I offer:
Cross.
Tomb.
Displaced stone.
Wonderment.
Scars on hands and feet that do not, will never, disappear.
But one is left to wonder about the best way to categorize and characterize such acts of inhuman cruelty as Sunday morning looms ahead of us.
Should we call the murder of 32 and the suicide of one "tragic" when the event was not accidental? Are words like "horrifying" or "unspeakable" too soft? Are combinations of such expressions*"unspeakably horrifying tragedy"*too hyperbolic?
What we have before us is a case where a person who was diagnosed to be mentally disturbed, and known to be deteriorating psychologically, gained access to weapons that never should have been within his reach. He did something so terrible that words do not suffice. We must, at times like these, rely on symbols that come from our traditions: Symbols that transcend words and capture our emotions so that we might begin to see the light of healing.
People look to churches and other faith communities to provide them with words, but words are not what we most deeply need in times like these. As Gilbert Bond stated in his Jonathan Edwards Society lecture here earlier this month, in the midst of trauma, we find recourse toward new life through the symbols that capture our pain and help us to break the cycle of trauma's silencing.
The prayer I pray for Virginia Tech fails to arrive at words. Therefore, I offer:
Cross.
Tomb.
Displaced stone.
Wonderment.
Scars on hands and feet that do not, will never, disappear.
Editors note:
Two members of the current ANTS student body, Andy Edwards and Debra Dunnington, are graduates of Virginia Tech. Keep them in your prayers.
Sarah B. Drummond
Assistant Professor of Ministerial Leadership & Director of Field Education
posted by Andover Newton News at
11:24 AM
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