I wasn’t alive when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I came along 5 years later, in the Summer of Love. And yet, when I see the images and hear the recordings from that era, I share something of that collective sorrow and grief experienced by those who lived through it. So much seems to have been lost on that day: Confidence, optimism, admiration for our national ideals, and the promise of a better world growing out of our commitment to those ideals.
We seek to provide meaning and context for this event. Why did this happen? Who was responsible? Given the world-changing magnitude of the assassination, it makes sense that we search for something more suitable than Lee Harvey Oswald’s quest to make himself relevant and meaningful in a world where he felt passed-over and inconsequential. Unfortunately, this search for meaning fuels the creation of crazy (and ultimately pointless) conspiracy theories.
It seems to me that this search for a more connected narrative has prevented us, as a nation, from moving beyond our collective grief. Collectively, we seem to be stuck in the Bargaining/Depression stage of grief. I propose that we take this time to move on, and begin, as individuals to move through to Acceptance. As individuals, we can work to turn the results of this atrocity into something worthy of the legacy that Kennedy’s life and example have left us.
I’ll echo the famous line delivered at his Inaugural address: Ask not what what your country has done for you. Ask what you have done for your country. It is in service to others that our own lives are granted meaning and usefulness. Start small, and don’t stop. To paraphrase the words of another wise person: nothing we do for one another is wasted.
Richasaurus Rex 