Suburbs of Our Discontent

I thought about leaving today's post blank, because, really, there's nothing any of us can say that doesn't sound like a cliché.

This pain belongs uniquely to the families.

Still, there's one Shakespearean moment that keeps coming up for me, and I'd like to put it out there. Because Shakespeare had a way of giving voice to and honoring that unique pain of losing in an instant all that is most dear to you. The most wrenching scene in Shakespeare, for me, is when Macduff finds out that his wife and all his children have been killed. It stops him in every way. All he can do is repeat the unthinkable: "All?" "What All?' "All my pretty ones?"

"Dispute it like a man," Malcolm pushes. "I shall do so," Macduff replies. "But I must also feel it as a man."

My heart goes out to all of the men and women and boys and girls who are feeling things right now that I can't possibly know.

The rest is silence.