FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK: Finding Meaning In Heart-rending Tragedy

The past week has brought heartbreaking news on both the national and the local levels. Though the recent incident in Aurora, Colorado and the local tragedy involving the Fox family of Overton have almost nothing in common, they do share one similar thread: that of sudden and catastrophic loss. As a nation, and as a community, we now grieve for those among us who are in a state of indescribable mourning.

When such heart-rending events occur so suddenly and unexpectedly as they did last week, it is only human nature to ask the question: Why? We instinctively seek for something or someone upon which we can cast the blame for our pain. It has to be someone’s fault that these things happen, we cry. In the case of a car accident some people go far out on a limb trying to fault the hot summer temperatures of the pavement, the air pressure and condition of the tires or the speed and quality of medical response. In the case of a mass shooting, folks point fingers at gun regulations, the lack of emotional support for desolate and lonely young people, or just a cold, heartless, loveless society. Left with no one else to blame, people sometimes even shake their fists toward heaven and blame God for all the misery and suffering in the world. People seem to be willing to look for anything that will make sense of the senseless and give meaning to inexplicable suffering. But none of this is ever very successful in providing lasting comfort.

Often the only meaning that comes from heart-rending tragedy is that which we, as human beings, draw from it. The unknown purpose typically sought by us all in seemingly senseless events usually must come of our own making and our own discovery.

A good example of this happened last weekend in the Moapa Valley community. In the day following the sad death of Dani Fox and her little son, Zachary, the community was rightfully stunned by such a senseless loss. But local volunteer firefighters didn’t spend very much time cursing fate or trying to assign blame. Instead they went to work to find a way to help the remaining members of the Fox family through their trying ordeal.

It is true that the local volunteer firefighters, as a group, are sometimes prone to petty squabbles and political intrigues amongst themselves within and between the three stations. But when tragedy strikes or urgency dictates, these good folks have always banded together like a family and have worked in unity to do what needs to be done. This was especially true last week.

Within 24 hours time, they began organizing a fundraiser; an event to benefit the Fox family. In no time at all their efforts had snow-balled into a full-fledged community-wide effort involving firefighters, local youth, nearby businesses and the community at large.

In talking to the leaders of the local stations, they each admitted that they could never have possibly organized such a successful fundraising event on their own in such a short period of time. They said that all they did was to start the ball rolling. Others then picked up on it and accelerated it on its way. The result was a wildly successful car wash fundraiser which was held on Friday and Saturday last week. It was an event that ended up involving most of the Moapa Valley community. More importantly, it presented a constructive outlet for the community to express its grief and sadness at its loss.

All of this had the effect of bringing a good news story up from the ashes of a terrible tragedy. These good deeds rejuvenated and began a healing process for the battered spirits of a heartbroken community. They also allowed the community to affirm its basic goodness and, by extension, that of all mankind. It displayed the general human tendency to help and serve one another and to make the world a better place for oneself and for others. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that these traits still do, in fact, apply to the overwhelming majority of the human race. Indeed, the general community goodness exhibited here last weekend highlights the fact that those who are bent toward evil and destruction in the world are still only a bare minority among us, despite all of the attention they may receive in the media.

The selfless actions of our local volunteer firefighters last weekend set off a chain reaction of service and brotherly love throughout the Moapa Valley that has provided a overwhelming degree of consolation and meaning, even amidst this heartbreaking local tragedy.

It is just that kind of selfless action; serving our fellow men in times of their most intense pain; which will always explain to us the inexplicable, give meaning to the unintelligible, and restore sense to our most senseless sufferings.