Craziness

This past weekend will go down as one of the craziest I have experienced in my three years at Iona.
The chaotic atmosphere created by the massive flooding inspired dumb-struck memories which I will never forget. The tragic death of Adam Lynch united the college community to remember a fallen brother in a time of sadness. On top of that, the terrible massacre at Virginia Tech was yet another reminder of just how fragile life really is.
With so much happening it was difficult to try and focus on just one thing to rant about. I couldn’t help but think that the surge in news items was a reflection of the fact that sometimes events in life are so big that they can’t be put into words.
Sunday felt like walking through a legitimate dream: it didn’t seem possible that a natural disaster of such a scale would ever touch our cozy little part of the country. But then, this weekend saw many things happen which wouldn’t normally fall into the realm of possible.
After watching many people come to terms with the damage caused by the flood (including dozens of cars filled to the brim with water) and others come to terms with the loss of a friend in Adam Lynch, it seems almost trivial to debate things like Don Imus vs. Al Sharpton or the Yankees and the Red Sox.
You could also say it would be trivial to run around in freezing sewage water, yelling at the top of your lungs. Yet perhaps it is these human things which get us through the tough times.
Maybe that can explain the wild and crazy reactions of some students during the flood on Sunday. It was almost like a cathartic form of healing after the long, somber week.
Taking a walk down White Oak Street in the early afternoon to find an array of cars submerged in water isn’t an everyday occurrence in New Rochelle – but it provided a nice break from the usual college activities. In between capturing the event with my trusty camera phone, I felt that every now and then it’s necessary to accept that there are some things we can’t control. Sunday was one of those days.
It was a day to sit back and say, “This is insane.”
Monday, on the other hand, was a day of sorrow for the entire nation. It was a time to pray for the thirty-plus individuals that had their lives ended by a madman at a college campus not very unlike Iona. Sometimes bad things happen to good people – and in this case it looks like we may never know any reason for the tragedy.
I don’t know whether or not things happen for a reason, but I do know that this weekend did happen. It wasn’t a dream – no matter how much we might wish that were so. Virginia Tech students were massacred; the Northeast region was thrashed by a powerful storm, and Iona is still mourning the loss of Adam Lynch.
We may never know why these things happened, but life goes on and as the saying goes, ‘time heals all wounds.’ The Iona community will move on – and hopefully there won’t be another weekend like this for some time to come.