On Monday before hell literally broke loose in Boston, I was reading a post on Facebook.  Obviously there are millions of them these days, but this one caught my attention and I ended up reading the whole piece and most of the comments.  It was written by a woman who had lost her young daughter, nearly three, to cancer.  She spoke with a subtle bitterness about how so many things that people say to her hurt.  Even seemingly kind-hearted comments such as "she was a warrior", or "she is an angel now" were perceived as being uncaring or insensitive and should have been withheld.  She posed that these comments were selfish and made more for the commenter than for the person at whom they were directed.  It was understandable, but it was cold.

I had written before about the young boy whom I had coached who had recently died of cancer and couldn't help but think if anything I had said or written had ever bothered the family.  Then it occurred to me that she was understandably venting and that these sentiments showed that this woman's pain was one that simply could not be fixed, could not be soothed.  There are some injuries that no poignancy or inspiration can cure

Then comes Boston.  Almost everyone has heard the tragic story by now of the Richard family.  Young Martin Richard, 8 years old and a big Boston Bruins fan, waited at the finish line with his family for his dad.  His Dad finished, Martin ran out to hug him, went back to wait with his sister and mother, and then the first bomb went off.  They ran for safety and when the second detonation exploded, Martin's young life was a memory, his sister lost a leg and their mother and father had lost almost everything.  I added the almost, because my wife reminded me that if it were me, I would find a way to be there to take care of the daughter. 

Now the Richard family is all over the news, all over Facebook, hundreds of thousands of likes, comments, thoughts, well-wishes and condolences.  There is nothing wrong with any of it, but will any of it really matter to them, or do we simply strive to repair ourselves by our thoughts and efforts at kindness towards the victims?  Maybe that's all we can do.  I am always the type to look for the bright side in something, to pull a positive from a negative situation.  Is it really possible to take away anything positive from this poor family's travesty?