A simple, yet loaded word. One word can conjure up images of millions of lives lost, as well as a broken iPhone screen.
The Human race has created art out of tragedy. From Oedipus, to Hamlet, to Edward Albee's work of fiction as seen in The Zoo Story or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf;
tragedy can become an individual burden, or can swarm over an entire generation.
Tragedy can be gradual, as in a long struggle with cancer, or can be instantaneous, as seen in the Nepalese earthquakes or the Amtrak derailment.
Tragedy can bring people together, or tear people apart.
And in some cases, do both.
What was God thinking? Why add tragedy to an already complicated existence?
Or..
Why did tragedy have to evolve? What does tragedy have to do with the sustainability of the human race as it emerged from the tar pits of history?
I guess tragedy is how we learn.
Tragedy is where we appreciate stories of fortune.
The survivor pulled from the rubble. The child crying out from the wreckage. The remission of a debilitating disease that no longer has a grasp over an individual's well being. A phone that still works despite a glaring flaw on a glass screen.
Often times, however, we forget to learn. Politicians use tragedies to back up their causes and do not pause to see the root causes of the tragedies themselves. Victims of tragedies sometimes immediately look for something or someone to blame. Those who may be the cause of a tragedy immediately find a way to justify their actions.
My hope, at least for myself, is to slow down and not view the tragedies in the moments they occur as these giants, bent on destroying and crushing my well being, my mood, my sanity. My hope is to change each instance of failure and fault into an instance where new information can be attained. A new way of looking at things. A new way of appreciating things. And maybe a new way of solving things.
Who knows; maybe tragedy will lead to and even better screen for the iPhone 7.
