E-MOTIONS?

Today has been a difficult day.  This morning I learned of the death of journaling friend's son who was serving in Iraq.  This woman  came to me and offered a comforting shoulder when my son enlisted in the Army.  This is the woman who voiced her own fears as her son was placed in harms way time and time again.  From time to time I left sincere words of encouragement.  'Everything will be fine' I said.  But I was wrong.  Everything is not fine.  Tonight, as I sit here infront of my computer, typing and retyping these inadequate words, she grieves with her family as their world is torn apart by a gaping wound that will scar their hearts forever.

How many times have I read on my monitor, shallow words composed by shallow minded people... 'The internet is not real'.  If that is true, then why do I feel so much pain right now for someone I know only as debbi4873?  For some it is easier to accept the idea that behind every screenname is a make-believe person, a personality completely fabricated as the name itself.  The reality is that there are real people behind those names, real people with real feelings, and real lives.  People who share our joy, enjoy our humor, and comfort our pain.  People who feel pain themselves.  People who are just as vulnerable to life, and death, as we all are.

This has been my second online tragedy.  It should be easier to deal with than a face-to-face tragedy.  It is not.  In some way it is harder.  I cannot reach out and physically grieve with others.  I cry over my keyboard and my family stares in helpless confusion.  They don't know how to comfort me, they do not understand my loss.  They cannot comprehend how I can hurt for someone I have never met and never even spoken to.

To Debbi, my heart is with you in your grief.  My friendship is with you always.  I pray for you and your family to find strength, and healing.  For Debbi's son Travis, I pray that he has found peace in his new Home.  And while I regret the sacrifice he has made, I thank him for it.  I pray for the safety of all the other service members who are still in harms way, and for those, including my son, who will soon join their fellow warriors on the battlefield.  I pray for the world that may one day know peace throughout the lands so that no more families have to shed a tear over a son or daughter lost in a time of war. I do not pray as often as I should, but tonight I pray all these things.