Goodnight baby, sleep tight my love
May God watch over you from above
Tomorrow I’m workin’ what would I do
I’d be lost and lonely if not for you
-Tom Petty
My dad used to sing that to me every night before bed when I was a little girl. We would look at the gas station out my window in NY, he would turn on my night light and sing me Tom Petty. Then when Hudson was born, I sang the same song to him.
Monday was a hard day to process. There was (yet another) senseless shooting in Vegas, and we lost the life of one of my favorite musicians, Tom Petty. I find myself deflecting all of the negative news and horrible happenings, or maybe I’ve just become numb after so many horrendous things in just one year, but this week I just cannot shake the complete and utter sadness of it all. How can these awful mass shootings keep happening, and we as a country just sit here and do nothing about it? How can we continue to let innocent mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers die by gunshot? Seeing it happen again and again and again just makes me feel defeated, and really f*cking scared to be out in the world. Especially with Hudson.
I couldn’t sleep on Monday, I just lay awake picturing all of the mothers who heard the news that their children were killed. I couldn’t even imagine. I don’t even want to imagine it for them because it makes me sick to my stomach. It’s hard to put ourselves in their shoes when we weren’t there, and our loved ones are safe at home. I almost feel guilty feeling so sad over all of the tragic events, because in this day and age another one could happen tomorrow, or next week. Is it okay to feel sad after each and every one? How much sad should we all feel until it’s time to say *okay, back to the grind*?
It’s like we have to find this balance between being empathetic and still caring, but also not slumping into a deep depression over how horrific it all is. How do you process negative news? How do you handle the overwhelming feeling of helplessness?