Tragedy can take many different forms for many different people.  While it was certainly not the only tragedy today, what with children in nearly every nation not getting enough to eat or access to safe drinking water, people unnecessarily dying due to lack of proper medical care or even with it,  today’s bombings in Brussels are one of the more public and proliferated forms occurring with increasing frequency lately.  While the tragic nature of the events is evident on peoples’ faces, what is less easy to see is the difference between those who still have hope and those for whom this was the last straw, those who have lost hope.

In the moments immediately following something so utterly devastating it’s understandable that life’s ongoing happenings might seem a tad, shall we say, overwhelming.  But what makes the difference?  What will allow some of the faces in the multitude of pictures from earlier today to soften, to change.  The difference, surprisingly likely has nothing to do with their future circumstances.  The difference is internal, it’s something we typically call hope.  For some this hope is based in what might happen: the global community may finally rally around each other and make an end to the threats of ISIL and its related groups… but what then?  or perhaps in radical changes to national and international security measures aimed at preventing such attacks … but didn’t we already try that?  There are other sources but what are they based on? I’m happy to discuss this more.  I have my own ideas that I’ll discuss more but I’d like to hear ideas from others.  What keeps you getting on your next vacation / business / pleasure flight or transit ride to work / the zoo/ the mall / the grocery store?  Well what is it?