Virginia Tech: Inventing the future, remembering the past

Written by Claire Colvin

Canadian poet Bliss Carmon asked, “was it a year or lives ago?”  I felt a similar shifting of time as I saw the news feeds covering first anniversary of the tragedy at Virginia Tech.  It shocked me that it has been a year already.  How can time move so quickly when for 32 staff and students time stopped that day? It doesn’t seem right.  I suppose that’s part of what makes loss so hard to wrap our heads around.  There is a perpetual voice that cries, “it wasn’t supposed to be like this” and that’s true.  It wasn’t.

April 16^th, like September 11^th

a few years before, should have been an ordinary day.  It was someone’s birthday, someone’s anniversary, and now it is a different day altogether.  Part of inventing the future is remembering the past.  Today the Virginia Tech community will gather to remember.   I wish there was a way to make a day like this easier.  

There is a verse in Jeremiah, a book in the Old Testament of the Bible that speaks of God’s love.  In Eugene Peterson’s translation, The Message he puts it this way "God told them, "I’ve never stopped loving you and I never will.  Expect love, love and more love!"  For all those who are grieving today, I pray that you will feel this love.

To the Virginia Tech community, we are so sorry for your loss.  I wish we could have known them the way that you did.  Thank you for keeping their memory alive.  We will all remember you as you are remembering them.

For more information on the services happening today, the stories of the fallen and what you can do if you know someone who needs help, go to http://www.remembrance.vt.edu/

Do you remember where you were when you first heard about this tragedy? How has it affected you, or those you know?

Image courtesy of Shi Zhao. Used with permission under a Creative Commons 2.0 license.