Deadliest Shooting in US History

Alan Kim / The Roanoke Times via AP

Often when events such as the shooting today happen, I can't quite wrap my mind around the whole thing. That is when the word helps me work through this senselessness. Today Shakespeare helps me draw closer to some understanding of today's events. The human condition really hasn't changed a whole lot since Shakespeare penned Hamlet. Hamlet asks the famous question at the beginning of this soliloquy. What question are you asking today?

To be, or not to be,--that is the question:

--Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them?--To die,--to sleep,

--No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to,--'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die,--to sleep;--To sleep!

perchance to dream:--ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

--The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns,--puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;

And enterprises of great pith and moment,

With this regard, their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!

The fair Ophelia!--Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remember'd.

Lord, please bring peace into this situation. Replace the anger, bitterness and fear with love, peace and joy. Comfort your people, Lord. Do not let these children of yours die in vain.

In your name we pray.

Amen