Where Do We Go From Here?

In the wake of last week’s tragic events in Gettysburg, some good things happened.  We saw a tremendous coming together of a community.  We saw a wonderful outpouring of love and support for a family that was hurting.

        

What a lot of people are struggling with now is where we go from here.  We feel like we need to try to get back to normal, to try to move forward, to try to recover from last week.  Some of us, though, do not feel ready to do that.  Others may feel ready to, but wonder if it’s really right to move forward so soon after such a terrible thing.

Recovering from something like this is a tricky thing.  We won’t all do it at the same pace.  The closer people were to the Hansen family, the longer it’s going to take, and the harder it’s going to be.  For the family itself, the recovery process really hasn’t begun yet.  That family is still in shock, trying to figure out a way forward.

We do, of course, have to get on with life at some point.  Tme moves only in one direction—forward.  We cannot go backward, and we cannot stand still, much as we might like to do either of those things.  The poet Robert Frost once wrote:  “I know only one thing about life—it goes on.”  We have no choice, really, but to go on with it

As we do that, though, it’s important that we stay united as a community. While we will not move at the same pace, we should not judge those who appear to move faster or slower than we do.  People have different ways of coping, and there’s no one way that’s more correct than another.  Some people need to talk, others keep things inside.  Some people build shrines or memorials, others quietly give support.  Some people may appear to dwell on the recent events, while others may seem to ignore them.  None of these things is right or wrong.  They’re just different ways in which we deal with things.  

One thing that’s important, though, is that, whatever we do, we don’t leave anyone behind.  It’s especially important that we don’t leave the Hansen family behind.  As I said, for them the recovery process has barely started, if it’s even started at all. When you’re still hurting, it’s hard to see others moving on while you cannot.  You can start to wonder if people have forgotten what happened.  You wonder if they really even cared all that much in the first place.

This community has been wonderfully supportive of the Hansen family this week, and that’s been wonderful to see.  What’s even more important, though, is that we support them in the days and weeks and months to come.  Give them a call.  Stop by and visit.  Send an email. Take some food over.  Invite them out.  Do whatever you do, but do something.  Don’t worry about what to say, and don’t worry about bringing the subject up.  It’s not like they’ve forgotten about it.  They live with it every day.  They want to know we haven’t forgotten about it, either.

        

There’s something else we need to do, too.  We need to make sure we’re there for all the other people in our community who have losses and who are hurting.  People in our community lose loved ones all the time.  It may not happen in such a sudden and tragic way, but it still happens, and it still hurts.  We need to give our love and support to those people, too.        

Over the last week, Gettysburg has shown itself to be what I already knew it was:  a wonderful, loving, caring community of friends.  Let’s keep that going.  In fact, let’s build on it.  Let’s be there for all the people of our community who are hurting, for whatever reason, and surround them with our love.  Then we’ll really be doing what Jesus told us to do:  loving our neighbors as ourselves.