Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut. Do you recall the tragedy? It’s hard to imagine that anybody would not.

On December 14, 2012 a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and proceeded to kill twenty first graders ages six and seven, as well as six teachers. As I later read the account of that morning’s nightmare, I felt so deeply pained and emotionally shocked as a human being and as a parent. As a human being, I mourned the loss of innocent lives and the indescribable pain of the families who had just lost their precious loved ones forever. As a parent, I felt as though I had lost my bearings. Isn’t my most basic duty as a parent to protect my children? Am I not obligated to provide for their safety and weIl being? Is there really nothing that I can do to prevent my children and all children from, God forbid, falling victim to such a sick gunman?

Perhaps some hint towards an answer lies in the words of one of the first grade victims at Sandy Hook Elementary. I read that 6 year old Caroline Previdi used to say, when telling others about herself and her family, “We are not lucky. We are blessed.” I find deep wisdom in her words. (And to be clear, I am not addressing or in any way mitigating the deeply painful tragedy of young Caroline’s life cut short.) Yes, indeed, we are all blessed, but the problem is that we don’t all feel it. And none of us always feels blessed all of the time, though, in fact, we are, always. To be alive is a blessing. To be loved is a blessing. Even to feel loved just once for a fleeting moment, is a blessing. To know that someone else is loved is also a blessing. There was a gunman who entered Sandy Hook Elementary School, who clearly didn’t feel blessed. If he would have, my heart tells me that things would have been very different in the lives of six heroic teachers and the lives of

• • Charlotte Bacon, 6
  • Daniel Barden, 7
  • Olivia Engel, 6
  • Josephine Gay, 7
  • Dylan Hockley, 6
  • Madeleine Hsu, 6
  • Catherine Hubbard, 6
  • Chase Kowalski, 7
  • Jesse Lewis, 6
  • Ana Márquez-Greene, 6
  • James Mattioli, 6
  • Grace McDonnell, 7
  • Emilie Parker, 6
  • Jack Pinto, 6
  • Noah Pozner, 6
  • Caroline Previdi, 6
  • Jessica Rekos, 6
  • Avielle Richman, 6
  • Benjamin Wheeler, 6
  • Allison Wyatt, 6