Pavane pour une infante défunte

So, there's been a shooting at Wesleyan.

Alas, poor us.

There will be posts, blogs, articles, eulogies, and lamentations. And they will all, at some point say that the victim was special. That she was unique. That she was not like other people.

And from one perspective, those comments will not sound right. She was a Wesleyan student; that is to say, a mere mortal. No more special than you, or I, or the idiot down the street. We are all just mortals. We are all special. In a way. And in a way, we are all very much un-special. Just another animated bag of meat and organs.

None of us are special. One of us has moved from the lists of those who move in the present, to the list of those who do not.

And yet...

She was special. There is a difference. She was not just another one of us.

Not only did she have her own beauty and grace, as an individual; — she was a Wesleyan student. And that does make a difference. Why?

It is hard to say. There is the potential that has been cut down. Someone who is twenty and coming out of a college like Wesleyan is at the verge of opportunity and adventure unlike many other people. Perhaps more so than most.

But what is really at the bottom of it, is that she did have parents who invested much, regardless how much they had. She did have the support of people from her home, friends, teachers, family... For some reason, she got that love and attention in the fifth grade that allowed her to prosper and succeed that the kid sitting next to her did not. She skirted past perils and traps that her peers did not. She defied the odds of sickness and death and want that derailed the other kids. All her life, she had increasingly become the focus of hope and aspiration of others. They invested in her, and made her a reservoir of their own dearest dreams.

She was different. She had the chance to succeed, to defy the odds of life and not be beaten down by fate. Not too soon, anyway. Not until today.

She wasn't just another twenty year old, she was one of the few who were supposed to make it.

That's what we lost today.

So when those posts, blogs, articles, eulogies, and lamentations all say that she was special, that she was unique, that she was not like other people; listen to them, because it is true.