Senseless

As Fridays in December go, this was a pretty good day. I took a vacation day, as I have with all the Fridays this month because I have to use that time or lose it. Once the kids were off to school, I went to the gym to work out, ran some errands and then went to play hockey at noon with a buddy in Peabody. It was a blast and even though I had to leave a little early to get home for a work call (yeah, yeah, I know), I had that tired but exhilarated feeling I get when I've exhausted my body in a good way. So I'm in the lobby of the rink and a TV is on CNN with a breaking news alert about a mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut that left TWENTY kids dead.

Talk about a mood changer. These types of events tend to happen fairly often these days, but this one is especially horrifying because the shooter allegedly went into the school and killed his mother and her entire kindergarten class. Makes no fucking sense at all. Of course, with the heightened awareness brought on via social media, I'm reading constant references to the need for gun control, the need to hug your kids and just plain sadness.

I understand it all. As a former reporter, I'm pretty desensitized to horrible stories, but having kids really makes this shit hit home. I'm typing this as my kids play with some friends, blissfully unaware of the mind-fuckingly awful situation that took place just a few hours away to kids just a few years younger than them. We don't let them watch the news because of stuff like this, horrendous child abuse arrests and of course, all the idiotic wars going on all over the world. There's plenty of time for them to learn about how shitty the world can be. Let them enjoy their childhoods while they still can.

As for me, I'm going to my buddy Jay's house tonight to do some podcast recording about our favorite music of 2012. The kids have activities planned. Life will go on as planned, but we'll mourn the dead of Newtown and wait for the next senseless atrocity to happen.