“Bright Light and Shadows” © R.L. Herron
Just when you think you have things all figured out and your resolutions for the new year are made, something comes along that makes you re-think everything. Not just the resolutions, which are almost always made half in jest each year. But everything.
Tragedy
Yesterday morning was one of those ‘somethings’ here. Three young schoolgirls, all 14 years old and freshmen at a local high school, were killed in an auto accident on the way to school. They were less than a mile from my house.
No one was speeding. No one was drunk. No one was really at fault. The car in which they were riding, doing much less than the speed limit, just hit a patch of glare ice on a curve and careened into the path of a large SUV.
No more algebra tests. No more giggling over the cute boys. No whispers and laughter of any kind. Only silence, and the crunch of ice under the ambulance driver’s feet. All three girls were declared DOA at the local hospital.
Sobering reality, so close to home.
I didn’t know any of them, but I feel the loss. Not in the sense of what their poor parents and relatives are going through. But in knowing that all that potential, all that young optimism, is gone.
Bright light, like the sunlight in the picture above, always has a shadow. If we are fortunate, we don’t ever have to look that closely or that often into those dark places.
Painting With Light 