A Sadness Revisited

You don’t need to have lost a child at Sandy Hook.
You don’t need to have lost a close friend at Sandy Hook.
You can still recognize John Donne’s universal message – a meditation he wrote nearly 400 years ago – that each passing affects us all, as we are all members of the continent, all part of the main.

“For Whom the Bell Tolls”
John Donne

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
~
To learn about most of the individual Sandy Hook children and educators and administrators, turn here: https://mysandyhookfamily.org

You can click on most of the 26 names to find out something more about their lives. (Some families ask that we respect their privacy. Please do so.)
Biography or not, each person can be honored individually, as well as they can all be honored as the group they became on Dec. 14, 2012 – 5 years ago this morning.

You can honor them by remembering them and speaking their names on this anniversary, or every day.

You can choose your own way to honor them.

A friend of mine – one of the brightest stars shining on Facebook – has spent years dedicating acts of kindness, one a day each year, to each lost soul – in a deeply compassionate as well as active and practical display of love.

However you choose to honor these 26 individuals, please recognize the passing of

Charlotte
Daniel
Ariel
Victoria
Benjamin
Dawn
Caroline
Ana
Catherine
Noah
James
Emilie
Lauren
Chase
Dylan
Jesse
Olivia
Jack
Grace
Josephine
Rachel
Jessica
Anne Marie
Madeleine
Mary
Allison

Recognize their passings today and every day – work to make the world a place in which their losses are not just tragedies, but are somehow inspirations – reasons to make our world better – for, as Donne insists, we are all involved in mankind.