Now, when Job's three friends heard of all these troubles that had come upon him...they met together to go and console and comfort him. They sat with him seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
--Job 2:11,13
What if,
instead of immediately rushing to fill the airwaves with commentary after the
slaughter of the innocents at Sandy Hook school, the nation had observed a holy
silence? What if, instead of shooting at the families who grieved, the photographers
had capped their lenses and sat down on the ground around the school and wept?
What if, instead of mining for sound bites, reporters had shut off their
recording devices and spoke not a word, seeing that the parents’ suffering was
very great?
Silence is
not the same as indifference. Sometimes the most compassionate response is
quiet understanding.
I do not
fault the photographers and reporters for doing their jobs, or the leaders of
cities, states and the nation for trying to give voice to our collective shock
and grief. I do not intend to criticize. I merely offer an exercise in
imagination. Can we imagine a more compassionate world?
If we can
imagine it, perhaps we can begin to realize it.
