Tonight my family and I went to a nearby lake, half because it was lovely at twilight, half because we needed an escape. I still find it hard to maintain any degree of joviality after what happened yesterday. "How can I be happy?" I asked myself. It seems such a selfish endeavor. Why should I have joy when thousands, millions of people mourn such a great loss. My facade is inneffective, I am sad within.
I was mulling over it by the waterside when a young girl came up to my dad and asked for a lesson on how to skip rocks. Her innocence touches me as deep as the tragedy that surrounds me. Her mother came to take her swimming, her mother knew it would be too cold, she was escaping, just as I was. She gave this little girl her wish, knowing the fragility of life. Knowing that that would be a memory. And memories are sometimes all we have.
She got to swim, and she learned to skip rocks, I can't think of a better way to spend an evening.