Lessons of loss

It never fails to hit me when I see the stories of lives taken prematurely and seemingly meaninglessly. Maybe it's my desire to make the loss meaningful that I try to take a lesson from every death and every seemingly unsurmountable challenge life throws in my way and the way of the people I care about.

Life has this week smacked me up side the head again. It's good for me. It rights me on my course. It sucks for a while, and it pains me to see other people hurting so badly. But I like to think that all my lessons in life will lead me to somewhere beautiful, and that I'll enjoy the journey along the way that much more having lived with loss, be it loss of life or in this case loss of innocence. I think many people view loss that way. I hope it's a healthy perspective.

I saw this story just today, about a boy beaten to death at a "boot camp" in Florida. Disgusting. I don't care what a 14-year-old boy has done; unless he's killed someone or put a gun to someone's head, he doesn't deserve a 20-plus-minute beating that leaves him dead. The people who killed him should pay with their lives. Excessive violence by anyone - civilians, police, military personnel - should never ever be tolerated.

Pointless loss of life - there is nothing worse to me.