Dates in History..

The history of dates is incredibly fascinating to me.  Naturally I started with my birthday.  I wanted to know stuff about that day throughout the course of time.  Who else was born that day?  Who has died on Sept. 16?  What kinds of historical occurrences happened?  You know, stuff like that. 
I already know that Nick Jonas was born the same day, but in a different year (thanks for pointing that out Rachel).  As well as numerous baseball players (Robin Yount, Orel Hershiser, Tim Raines, Brandon Moss and others); much to my happin ess of course.  :]  Even a few musicians and actors (B.B. King, Nick Jonas (as I mentioned before) and Alexis Bledel aka Rory Gilmore).  
My personal favorite historical moment that I learned about happened the day I turned 3, Tom Browning of the Cincinatti Reds threw a perfect game.  How awesome for some who’s so into baseball to read that!
Being as fascinated with the history of dates as I am lately, I looked up September 11.  Just to see what else, other than the attacks of almost 10 years ago, happened on that date in history. 
Wikipedia is a place that I spend a lot of time visiting.  So I was scanning the list of birthdays for Sept 11 and I see “Dylan Klebold: Columbine High School Massacre co-perpetrator”.  After I finished looking at the rest of the list and then going through the list of deaths and events Wikipedia posted I got the idea to look up April 20.  Which is the date of the Columbine shooting.  I wasn’t too interested in the births and deaths of this date, I just wanted to get to the events so I could go to the Columbine page from there.  Sure it would have been easier to just type “Columbine” in the search box but I had to be difficult.  It took me over an hour to read through Wikipedia’s account of the shooting.  And as I did, I was completely zoned. 
There has always been something about that event that has intrigued me.  Not in the sick “ooh that’s so cool” kind of way.  But more in the “why does it have to be like this” type of thought.  I mean seriously, why do teenagers have to be so terrible to each other that the only way they think to make it stop is for someone, or multiple someones, to bring guns and violence into the mix?
I remember coming home from school that day, I was in the 7th grade.  I walked through the door and instead of the usual soap opera that was on when I would get home, they were showing news coverage from Littleton.  A town that until that day I didn’t even know existed at a high school that would become well known all because of the actions of the two boys. 
Anyway, so I walked into the living room and my mom just kept hugging me.  Now, there’s nothing weird about a mom hugging her daughter but on this particular afternoon, the hugs just didn’t stop.  I know she loves me, and she knows that I know but I guess on that particular afternoon after seeing the news and hearing the reports on what happened, there was probably some thought in her head to make absolute certain that I was aware of her love.
Something else I remember about that afternoon was actually watching the news.  I seriously sat down and watched.  Maybe it’s because I paid attention to such a tragic event that I’ve basically stopped watching the news or don’t read any newspapers or anything now.  Maybe because I only pay attention to the tragedy I don’t watch for the good stuff that could be happening.  But seriously, nothing good ever seems to be reported anyway.  So what’s the point in hoping for it to happen.
This world is sick.  Full of death, destruction, deceit, corruption, violence, abuse, and a myriad of other sick and twisted things that I just don’t wanna hear about.  I don’t want to be ignorant to my surroudings but I don’t want to hear the same terrible news stories day after day either.  I know it sounds weird for me to be saying not to hope for something while fully believing in hope.
I guess it’s kinda strange to being talking about the Columbine tragedy and the 9/11 attacks in the same post.  But in a way, there’s a connection all because one of the shooters from Columbine was born on 9/11.  Kinda ironic how that all works out but as tragic as each day’s events were, and as much as they saddened many people, God was there.  In all of it.
The point of this wasn’t to stir up people’s grief and sadness they may have inside of them from either day in history.  More of a reflection on the truth that no matter the circumstances…good or bad…God is there.  Always.  And it is my hope that we never forget that.