Anders Breivik, I pity and thank you.

If anyone was wondering, I’m okay. This past weekend has been a long, strange, sad and special one. We live about 8 miles from Oslo and we heard the boom down here. Absolutely insane. Friday was one of those days. We had to go into the city to get some presents for our nephew. We overslept. God is great.

Unfortunately, a friend lost one of his family members on Utøya island, and we share in his grief. Yesterday we had the honor of going to the rally for the victims and the rally for grief, solace, positivity, hope and love. It was just gorgeous. The pictures you’ve all likely seen from around the world don’t do it justice from being there in person. But it was just lovely.

I was just telling a friend today that I pity and thank Anders Breivik. I pity him and I thank him. It’s a shame he has lived his life so deprived of love and any kind of human understanding, and also shame on him for not taking responsibility for bettering himself as a person. He’s never known and will never know happiness, acceptance or joy. I think that’s a punishment far beyond what anyone can inflict physically or through law cuz those are things people want most in the world. And I thank him because people took a day yesterday to just be together in honest to God “being”. just hangin out, showing support for each other, crying with each other, laughing with each other, not giving in to the shit.

I’m thankful for the reminder. We know love.

The good people of the world, all of us who know love, need to step it up. Step it up, spread love, understanding, clarity, acceptance. We’ll never be outnumbered by the people in this world who haven’t yet learned the lessons we’ve learned and therefore act in the sad and awful ways they do. Our world is a beautiful and good one. As are its people. We’re responsible for teaching each other and for learning. Sad as all these events have been, I’ve actually felt more hope for people than I have in a very long time.

And for the first time in many days, the sun just came out.