I've Got Some Thinking to Do

Proverbs 25:8
Do not go out hastily to argue your case; Otherwise, what will you do in the end, When your neighbor humiliates you?

I certainly have this tendency, whether it's in traffic or while reading the local paper, but I'm trying to take more time to explore issues and think them out with more patience and openness than I have in the past.

I've been reading a lot of the media coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy, and some of the opinions and reactions that have been circling have provoked me to respond, but I've decided maybe it would be best if I, instead of adding to the noise, sat back for a few weeks and let all this sink in before airing my feelings and opinions. Maybe if I wait for a while longer I will come to a better conclusion than if I simply post what's rattling around in my head right now.

It's a luxury I have that obviously the media doesn't have. It is after all their job to comment on the goings-on in the world. But I think the feeling that we must know everything about events like Columbine, 9/11, or the most recent tragedy make it easy for people in the media to jump to conclusions or find scapegoats or form talking points that try to explain these complicated and sometimes unfathomable events with a sentence-fragment headline. It's as if the media acts like one of those friends or family members that approaches you in a time of grieving and says something like, "He's gone on to a better place," or "God's watching over you," or "It'll all be alright."

But now, in the wake of the worst shooting of its kind in American history, maybe we should just take a while to think, pray, and meditate before we launch into judgment calls and quick-fix schemes.