As a human being, I woke up Sunday to the savage carnage in Orlando. As a New Yorker my heart bled for another city that has to experience the horror of unnecessary hatred. As a sister and fellow member, I broke for the families of forty-nine people senselessly gunned down in hatred. Those families who have now joined, “The Club.” That club of agonizing grief.
As a writer and fledgling journalist, the words had left me. How do you write about this? How do you put into words something that you can not even bare to feel? Even those of us, who have experienced the stabbing pain, that premature, tragic, should never have happened, death of those we love. No words can describe it.
You can try, but even then, it doesn’t come close to the grieving anguish that is reality.
But there is love. Surrounding all encompassing love.
In light of what happened in Orlando, and the supposed “reasons” – though no motive will ever truly give reason to such a hate filled act – we need to love.
First with ourselves.
And then with others.
Let it spread out into the world.
I use to laugh about the girl who would wear a sign saying, “free hugs” in Union Square.
It doesn’t seem so laughable now.
We need love wherever we can get it. For the guy who cut us off in traffic, to the woman who bumped into us with her huge bag and thus spilled our coffee.
To those who are different from us, either because of cultural, sexual, or religion.
It doesn’t matter. We as people all crave the same things. The biggest being love.
I leave you with this acceptance speech from Lin-Manuel Miranda from Sunday night’s Tony awards.
Love is love, is love, is love, is love, is love, is love.
