'The horror, the horror'

As the news unfolded of the carnage at Virginia Tech, I kept thinking about how such horrors often are confined to 27 inches of television screen.

We sit in insulated safety and watch as man’s inhumanity to man hits home.

Columbine. September 11. Iraq. Darfur. Katrina. An Amish schoolhouse.

Adding to our despair is a feeling of inadequacy, the inability to make a difference or to make sense of senseless death and suffering.

All day and all night I repeated to myself words I long ago memorized.

As a young woman I did community improvement work through the Mississippi Federation of Women’s Clubs and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.

Each meeting was opened with Mary Stewart’s “Collect” – pronounced COLL-ect – written in Longmont, Colorado, in 1904.

May the words of this prayer bring light to a world of darkest days:

Keep us, oh God, from pettiness;
Let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.
Let us be done with fault-finding
And leave off self-seeking.
May we put away all pretense
And meet each other face to face,
Without self-pity and without prejudice.
May we never be hasty in judgment
And always be generous.
Let us take time for all things;
Make us to grow calm, serene, gentle.
Teach us to put into action our better impulses,
Straight-forward and unafraid.
Grant that we may realize
It is the little things that create differences;
That in the big things of life we are at one.
And, may we strive to touch and to know
The great, common human heart of us all.
And, oh, Lord God,
Let us forget not to be kind.