As The Dust Settles

I don't think anyone's mind has been truly free this week from the events at Virginia Tech that took place on Monday. As the days have passed more of the initial questions have been answered, more of the philosophical "how can this happen, how DID this happen" and the "are we at the mercy of fate" questions have arisen.

I started thinking about this reading minor incident's blog entry here a couple of days ago. The idea that our stories have already been written, that we are on a path to something greater that has already been set is not entirely new (Helloooo...haven't we ALL seen and memorized the NeverEnding Story? Or is that just me?). We have the ability to affect and alter our lives, paths and decisions, but overall the destination and when you arrive is inevitably the same.

Maybe a little morbid, but it struck again this morning as I was perusing the Washington Post online upon arriving at work. They wrote about the 75 year old professor and Holocaust survivor who saved his classroom of students from the gunman by becoming a human shield. As I read about his funeral in Israel that took place yesterday, his survival as a teenager in the concentration camps, and his journey to Virginia Tech, the idea that we move buoyantly through our lives with a purpose unbeknownst to us struck me even more.

I was happy to be the only one in the office as I was reading the WaPo piece. It made me tear up and remember the truly great people who exist in the world, the ones who live not in the tabloids, on the big screen or using their fame while adopting babies from Africa. They are the people we know in our daily lives, the people whose small acts of generosity and kindness send ripples throughout the community on a regular basis and help pave their own paths of fate.

I think the outlines of what shall become each person's narrative has been written. Fate exists for the bounty of us all. We fill in the blanks based on the choices we make--both the small and the large. As I read the chain of events spanning 6 decades that brought Liviu Librescu to the door of the classroom where his student sat as targets, this belief was solidified just a little bit more.