What was to be easier

I have been enjoying my new habit of shutting down Outlook and signing out of Messenger while I eat lunch and turn my mind to writing.  I find that after the soup is gone and the writing is saved, that I return to the work at hand with less tension and a healthier perspective. 

I was looking forward to today as I had been mulling around some ideas of a humorous take on the recent North Korean rocket launch, but as the day progressed and I watched the news feeds populate with the events of the shooting in Connecticut, my sense of humor became increasingly inaccessible and my mind took a more solemn and sadder frame. 

From my office today it seems easier to see the future than the present.  It seems easy to predict the upcoming legislation on tighter gun controls and school security.  It seems easy to see how funds will be moved to providing greater security in our public schools almost certainly to some extent at the cost of education.  It seems easy to foresee an increased outflow of students to home, private, or charter schooling; again, at the cost of public education. It seems easy to foresee the candlelight vigils and charities and benefits set up with the focus of mitigating the pain and fallout of this tragedy.

These things seem easy to predict and where my mind seems to be drawn, because I can't imagine the terror in those classrooms or the trauma the children who were near are experiencing.  I can't fathom the panic of the families who have children at that school or the sorrow of one who knows they have lost such a beloved life.