Wednesday, May 27, 2009

gunshots and carjacking

So, I the grey outside is making me feel sad even though I have so much to be thankful for.

Yesterday, I met one of my students as she walked out of the classroom. She had a very sad look on her face. I said, "What's the matter?" She said, "I'm sad." I said, "I'm sorry, what's wrong?" She said, "My sister is in the hospital." I looked at her and said, "I'm so sorry, what happened to your sister?" She said in a sad yet matter of fact voice, "She got shot three times."

Stunned.

I gave her a hug. What do you do with that kind of reality?

A couple of weeks ago we were talking about "real fears" and "imagined fears". Like, you should be afraid of the cars speeding down the street but, maybe you shouldn't be afraid of the monsters under your bed. Anyway, as we were trying to talk about this one of my most serious and well-behaved students --in response to "What are some things that we really should be afraid of?"-- said, "Carjacking."

Everything inside of me stopped.

What would make him think of "carjacking"?

That weekend I spoke to his teacher and she told me that his family had been carjacked the week before we had that conversation. A man got into the car with the whole family in it, put a gun to his father's head, and told him to drive. My students father wouldn't do it until the man let the children get out of the car (with a gun to his head!). What a traumatizing experience to have!

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live the questions now... R.M. Rilke