Making Sense of the Senseless-Colorado's Movie Theater Murderer

The world is full of monsters. Seen and unseen. Silent and heard. Alive and dead. In my short life there have been days and nights full of tragedy, and I have been lucky enough to have never been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In the wake of Colorado’s movie theater murderer, everyone is asking, Why? Part curiosity, part human intellect trying to make sense of it, to piece it together, in hopes of…what? Preventing it in the future, perhaps. Maybe its a desire to know if these kind of people are natured or nurtured, or if it’s the precise, deadly combination.

I think we all want to know why people hurt other people, for what feels like no reason, so that maybe we can begin to wrap our brains around James Holmes’ logic, Klebold and Harris’ logic, Al Qaeda’s logic, Hitler’s logic.

I truly believe, my psychology education aside, that there is no logic, there is no reason to sociopaths, psychopaths and delusional individuals warped realities. I don’t think they even understand their reasoning, their anger and sadness that might drive them to pull a trigger, to plant a bomb, to fly planes into buildings.

Holmes’ father tweeted that this event is “horrifying”. Anyone with parents should know that nearly every parent blames their child’s shortcomings on themselves – where they screwed up, when they didn’t listen, what the signs were, who were the wrong people or things they exposed or allowed them to be around. But can anyone see it coming? Is there anything that anyone can do or should have done to stop it? Tragedy strikes, and we’re all left wondering, if there was something, anything that could change what can never be changed.

Of course, bad things happen to everyone. Besides death, the only thing guaranteed is that there are no guarantees, no straight and narrow paths to follow, no plans immune to life’s sicknesses and sorrows.
I have to believe, especially in these moments, that one bad thing has to happen in order for 10 more good things to happen.
Misery loves company. But strength, happiness, hope and understanding is contagious. I can only hope that this melting pot of a nation, of strong people, will always stand together to celebrate the good times and help one another in sad times of loss and unearthly needs.
I can only make sense of this senseless act by hoping that the loved ones of those at the Aurora, Colorado theater early Friday know that they are not alone in the anguish and torment and rage they feel. That they are not the only ones who are trying to make sense of the senseless.