Three Beautiful Things 01-25-2025: Debbie Works on the Kitchen, The Rush to Closure, Joy Day 10: Sibling Outing Number One

1. Debbie has had a bunch of superb ideas for rearranging some things, like spices, grains, coffee cups, and other things in the kitchen, and today she turned her vision into actuality and I'm all in. 

2.  As I read more deeply into Dave Cullen's astonishing book, Columbine, I recalled conversations I had with B_t__a, a student of mine at LCC. Kip Kinkel shot her in the Thurston High School cafeteria on May 21, 1998. Our conversations were confidential. But, I will say, from my own point of view, I regard it shallow and heartless when I hear or read it said that victims of trauma need to let go, put the past behind them, move on, just heal, seek closure. Such statements always sound to me like they are for the sake of those who say them, not to help the trauma victims in any meaningful way. 

These thoughts and my memories of B_t__a surfaced when I read this opening paragraph to Chapter 22 of Columbine. For context, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire and set off pipe bombs in Columbine High School on Tuesday, April 20, 1999. 

Dave Cullen writes on page 115: 

HEALING BEGINS, the Denver Post announced Thursday morning. The headline spanned the full width of page one thirty-six hours after the attack. Ministers, psychiatrists, and grief counselors cringed. It was an insanely premature assessment. The paper was trying to be helpful, but its rush to closure did not go over well in Jeffco [Columbine High is in Jefferson County, also known as Jeffco]. With every passing week, more of the community would grumble that it was time to move on. The survivors had other ideas.

3. In contrast to reading my way through Columbine, today I also posted my last "life is good" image for the Facebook Joy Project. This image speaks well for itself. I'll just say that Carol took this picture of Christy, me, and her outside the Inland Tearoom and Cafe (also known as Inland Cafe and Tea) in Coeur d'Alene on January 6, 2025, the day the three of us went out on our first sibling outing of the year. Our plan is to go out on one once every month.