In the Face of Terror

So often, when something terrible happens, my first instinct is to retreat. I want to limit the amount of detail I have to absorb. I don’t want to see the horrible things horrible people say about it. I certainly don’t want to talk about it. It’s a combination of being an introvert and (perhaps too) sensitive.

After a little while, though, and like everyone else, I start to process. I feel all the usual things–anger, sadness, hopelessness, resolve. And then I try to make sense of it in words....