This is a reflection on the events that transpired on a sunny day in April on the campus of Virginia Tech

Candles at night on the Quad. A bonfire would indicate a sports victory. A sunny day perhaps a graduation. Perhaps it is Christmas-but students go home at Christmas time and the remnants of dusk are long gone by 7 pm near the Winter Solstice. No. This is unmistakably mourning.

What is mourning? In the secular sense it is the process of returning to normal. We are programed for this. How else can we survive a month where the dubious anniversaries of Oklahoma City and Columbine collide with the fresh tragedy of the West Virginia coal mines? Let’s not forget the tragedy in our own lines known but to us and a few others and let’s not forget the tragedy of our invisible neighbors who we pass on the other side of the road. In a secular sense to move on, not as if didn’t happen, but as if such things DO happen, is the goal. And if that is the goal not only have we succeeded but we have triumphed.

But we reject this- the fallen are more than just memories, shadows and dust. Life is more than chaos given order through competition to survive. Otherwise killers always win. A true killer needs but two kills to win – only one kill can be scored against him. Premature blackness in the face of eternity is a small price to pay for the very real suffering caused.

So what is to be done? Who is to blame when the killer’s corpse lies with the slain? I blame the killer of miracles. For what if the weapons had jammed? Or rather what if the slain had literally cast of death – all surviving with only scars to mark where the bullets pierced them? What then? The killer of miracles goes right back to his daily routine. As if nothing happened.

I think we need more miracle finders. People who don’t need dramatic galvanization of good or evil in order to put aside comfortable routine and spend their lives devoted to work with the potential to echo through eternity. Find one. Follow them. A miracle awaits where you least expect it.

Or don’t. Just wait for that next student loan statement.