Yesterday as I was driving to an appointment just outside of Grand Blanc to the north, there was a bit of traffic. Traffic in GB you might ask? Yes, it looked as if there were some repairs going on on a sign near the viaduct. Driving closer, it was getting clearer as to what was going on. A banner was being erected that said “WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER”. I teared up.
It has been a long week since the shooting at the Church of the Latter Day Saints on McCandlish Road Sunday morning in our small town, actually not even a whole week yet. The day following, my Mom and I drove through town and it felt somber even though it was a beautiful sunny Michigan autumn day. Our local law enforcement and governmental officials have carried out their job with professionalism and compassion. Their training, no doubt has prepared them for the unimaginable. I’m guessing that they train and train and maybe secretly, they hope they don’t have to experience these situations. Who wants that in their community? Grief counseling has been available for those who need it…Are we better together?
At the local gym people who showed up a little early for class seemed more talkative as they discussed the disbelief in the tragedy that town had experienced and some lingered outside of studios still talking following class. I even noticed, as I was in the traffic, both heading out of town yesterday and then on the way back in, people were more willing to let people in to the merging traffic, I head no horns honking as sometimes you do when people wait until the last minute to merge from two to one lane of traffic, more people seemed to give plenty of space behind or in front of their car to let people in…Are we better together?
In the last month, we all have seen the Charlie Kirk assassination, played over and over on social media, the shooting at the LDS Church in Grand Blanc, which made national news and yesterday on the Day of Atonement, in the Jewish faith, Yom Kippur, a British man of Syrian descent drove into a Synagogue in Manchester, England then started attacking bystanders with a knife. The attack left two dead and other injured on the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. We have seen those communities involved in all of these tragedies come together. In our town Go Fund Me Pages and other contributions have been set up for the victims and their families. These families will feel the affects of this tragedy for years, if not a lifetime time. Are we better together?
Last night, I went to the visitation for a Chief Friend’s Mom who I have known since the ninth grade at Grand Blanc High School. Friends and family gathered, consoled and reminisced to comfort a family experiencing the loss of their Matriarch. My friend commented that having loved ones around at this time was such a good feeling (paraphrasing here)…Are we better together?
Life is a journey of peaks and valleys and fortunately we have people around us to share in the joys and sorrows that are all part of the life experience. We GET to be there for one another and we GET to experience the love we need in the darkest of times. With the mind set of us and we rather than I and me, the bumps in the road of life are a little less jarring. To “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12) is a good reminder of how to connect to our neighbors and comrades for this odyssey of life, making for more great days ahead for us all…Yes, We Are Better Together ❤️
