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If We’d Known
We have been doing a rare “binge watch” at our house, and the question was presented the other evening as to what we would do if we had known what act of violence Ted Bundy would perform? Sort of a butterfly effect.
If we’d known that someone would grow up to be one of the growing number of people who use guns to inappropriately shoot on school grounds or in crowded areas, what would we do? Would you choose to make sure they had never been born or would you change the life circumstances that brought them to the act of doing harm to others?
If we’d known, would we treat these people differently prior to the horrifying event they would eventually be responsible for?
If we’d known, would we treat our own family members differently? Perhaps a little kinder, perhaps by assisting them to receive the mental health programs they need.
If we’d known, would we talk to the people who tried to “fix” this person in their own narcissistic pattern? Would we recognize the symptoms of both the slow suicide of substance abuse and the quick suicide by the police or by their own hand?
We don’t know. We can only be present and pay attention to those around us.
Most of the time, we don’t know what to do when we see disaster approaching — and have no way to see what the outcome of a tragic life will be.
