Starting Anew

My iBook has served me for over 4 years, and I must say, it has done a very good job. Except for one accident a few years back, when someone tripped over my wire and sent my entire laptop crashing to the floor, I never had any hardware problems with it. But age is catching up with it, and I’ve overloaded it with so many pictures and junk, I don’t know where to start clearing. So I got myself an iMac (above pic), which is much cheaper than the Macbooks. So there, now I’m starting with a brand new computer, and a brand new blog that is more organised (hopefully) and easily navigable.

But starting anew doesn’t always come easy.

I’m currently reading Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes” and I get very disturbed with every page. She is a compelling fiction writer, and the story is about a high school killing. She writes from the perspective of the victims, the victims’ parents, the detective, the young shooter, his parents, his representing lawyer and the emotional journey of each character is one that is very real, and unfortunately dismal.

When an incident that is as extensive as a high school shooting takes place, all fingers point at the shooter and his parents. But nobody feels sorry for the boy for his act of vengeance against a lifetime of hurt. It’s hard to forgive him, but as I’m led into his inner world, I begin to understand why he did what he did, and realise that it’s a catastrophe in the making. Not that what he did was right. I sympathise with his parents who struggle to identify how they have brought him up wrong; I feel the emptiness of losing a loved one; I see the desperate attempt of a parent trying to connect with her child; I empathise with the detective who has so much evidence to plough through in order to answer to everyone. It really amazes me how when I close the book before I sleep at night, my heart is soaked with sadness and despair.

I haven’t finished reading it yet, but it’s a book that has taught me many emotional lessons:

When tragedy strikes, mulling in sorrow actually reigns in the pain that otherwise would strike out viciously with each step towards starting anew