On writing about sad things

There is no way to quantify tragedy.

That is one simple truth of the world, and one that we, all those who have experienced some form of tragedy, know inherently.

That being said, newspapers do it all the time, or try to anyway.

I have been thinking about this lately, because of national tragedy, and local ones. No matter the scope of the event, it seems there are some basic formulas we cleave to in trying to understand these things.

I have never been one to deal very well with formulas. But, I have also never dealt very well with scrutinizing people up close.

Sometimes I think I would rather look away, rather than look at the things I know everyone has inside them.

When I have written about loss in the past, or at least, large-scale injustice, it was always for a purpose. The element of human tragedy was, perhaps unconsciously, dwarfed in my mind by the larger cause for justice.

Lately, I have had to write about tragedy for what it is -- something sad, something impossible to understand, and something deeply personal.

I have had to try and put into words what losses from which people cannot recover.

And that has been hard.