I should title this “We Are Not Ok.” Or maybe “Psychosis.” Or maybe just “———” because what reasonable response is there to the seemingly very American addiction to guns and violence? In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl wrote about how prisoners in concentration camps became numb to death. They began to have abnormal reactions to abnormal circumstances, thus in some weird way both the reactions and the circumstances got normalized.

Who are we that 19 children can get gunned down and we still don’t think guns are a problem? Who are we that 10 days after a white supremacist shot 11 people in Buffalo, NY we are already braced for what comes next before their names can even slip out of our mouths in a whisper or a prayer?

This is a podcast full of melancholy and hopelessness. It is a podcast of many pauses - some had to be edited down - and much grief. I am not even sure we have the energy for disbelief and shock. We are, as a culture, beging conditioned to have abnormal responses to abnormal situations.

There are a couple of links to check out. One is the press interview given by Steve Kerr, head coach of the Golden State Warriors. His father was killed by a gunman. It’s personal for him. We should all take it this personally. We should all be this outraged. His is a normal reaction to abnormal behaviors. Watch it HERE.

Another is the prayer offered by Diana Butler Bass that is not empty, but intentional and deliberative. Part of what she is saying is to let your prayers and laments become action. Pray with your feet. Pray with your vote. Pray with your protest. Find her words HERE.

I don’t know how to tell you to be okay. We are not okay. But I hope we can be not okay in solidarity.