the first day

Yesterday the big news was the weather. All sorts of minor accidents left cars roadside, as rain was followed by hail and finally snow — in mid-April.

Yesterday is far, far away now. Snow in April is nothing compared to 31 people being shot to death on a college campus in Virginia, just down the road from Bluefield. In our modern Internet- and TV-fed culture, the news feed is nonstop. Talk about it, watch news reports about it, read updates about it on CNN.com — it's easy and tempting to maintain a steady diet of information overload in an attempt to satisfy our shocked wondering.

It seems like we should be able to answer the questions already: Who was the shooter? Who has died? What exactly happened? The most intriguing question, I think, is "Why?" But even with the Internet and the constant coverage on TV, some things will still take time: the answers to all those questions, and the dealing with grief and loss. It's a long road ahead.