Karla Who?

Yesterday the world was rocked with yet another senseless and horrific attack on innocent people. In vain attempts to deal with the "deja-vu" feelings of 9/11, I tried to find some sort of -- any sort of -- dim light in the darkness. And I found it, however small it was. I don't recall a single media mention of (not that I take it multiple newspaper, radio and television broadcasts, but I do catch a bit of each in my daily travels) recently released child-killer Karla Homolka. Prior to mid-morning yesterday, her name, face and story were plastered all over the media. I can only imagine what it did to the families of the victims.

And now there are new victims of a different kind of senseless killing, and a new horror in the hearts of the world. I know, in some areas of the world bombings and the killing of innocents are an everyday occurrence. It's maddening. Yeah, sure, I write horror stories -- but I'm not immune to the sickening feeling of when innocent people are slaughtered and attacked out of the blue.

Last night, while getting my computer ready for what I thought might be the inevitable middle of the night phone call (I'm still on 24/7 call for emergency support for my team at work), I just sat there and stared at the desktop background photo of my son. It was a picture of him in his yellow "Octopus" one piece outfit. It was taken last week. We'd just left Port Dover and stopped at a Tim Horton's parking lot to change his diaper in the back of the CRV. When finished, he sat up, leaned forward, and grabbed his newly acquired bucket and shovel and got this wonderfully beautiful delighted smile on his face. It was just a plastic bucket and shovel for the beach, but the look of delight and excitement on his face was as if he'd found the secrets of the universe in that bucket.

Perhaps he had. I know that Alexander has a way of making me pause to enjoy the simple things -- the things that, in our adult life we often overlook because we get so consumed with our day to day tasks and the endless pieces of bad news that flow to us from the four corners of the world.

So I sat there, just looking at that face, at that smile, and I was able to finally push aside the horror as my heart filled with joy, and love and hope.