20 April 2007

Bad things happen

That's what I've been telling my daughter. My son. My students.

Virginia Tech and what happened there is a bad thing. Bad things happen. They happen, and there isn't a darn thing you can do to prevent it.

Scary, but true.

My workplace has been on a low-level freak-out ever since Monday. It amazes me that some people seem to think we can write a crisis plan that would prevent this.

You can't stop someone bent on causing havoc. You can plan, but eventually, bad things happen.

Bad things happened at Virginia Tech. Bad things happened at UT years ago.

I refuse to live my life in fear of bad things. I can't.

Life is risk. You can weigh the risks, but ultimately, risk is there.

Bad things happen. You can't do anything about it. That's life.

Whether you use faith in religon to help you understand, or you are more pragmatic, or both (in my case), you have to be prepared for bad things. You can't wrap yourself or your kids or your other loved ones in bubble wrap.

Go. Live life. Take risk. Celebrate good things, and don't fret about the bad ones.