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The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz., Slim Smith Column: A Question Without a Clear Answer

Posted on: Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Slim Smith, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Jan. 24--Why?

An 85-year old Mesa man is struck and killed by a car as he is riding his bicycle.

Another Mesa man, as he turns into his driveway, hits and injures a couple of kids who are riding their motorized scooters. Seven years later, his own 14-year-old son is hit and killed by a distracted driver while walking near his school.

A Queen Creek woman's parents and brother are killed in July by her estranged husband, who then flees to Mexico with her children. The children are later recovered when her fugitive ex-husband is found in Mexico and she is reunited with her children. On Sunday, the eldest child -- a 4-year-old -- is killed by a hitand-run driver as the child is sweeping the driveway.

Why?

It is a question we all will ask, if we haven't already.

I think there are two ways to look at it. The secular view is that there is no answer. Life on earth is a random thing: You are born, you live, you die. There is also the spiritual view, which asserts that all things happen for a reason.

Yet even this view usually falls short of satisfying the haunting question.

St. Paul, in addressing the subject, put it this way: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.''

My experience tells me that the question of "why'' is often a demand for justification rather than explanation.

Four years ago, my brotherin-law's 15-year-old son was shot and killed by a friend over some pointless dispute. During the long legal process, my brother-in-law was obsessed with one thought: "I want him to look me in the eye and tell me why he killed my son.'' But what answer could he really hope for? What explanation would lift his grief? None. He visits his son's grave almost every day, still wondering "Why?''

Another nephew was killed in a rock slide at the age of 18. It's been 20 years since that tragic day and yet, for my brother, there are mornings when the simple act of getting out of bed is an act of profound courage.

Well, I much prefer the spiritual view. It must be a terrible thing to be an atheist at such times, when your loss is met with the indifference of a cold, meaningless cosmos.

So I find some solace in the belief that there are answers to the most painful questions, even if they are given in a language not spoken on Earth.

Some people have suggested that sometimes the answer is because God is executing his wrath. I heard that most recently in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I don't buy it, though. I hold the view expressed in the bluegrass song, "He Ain't Never Done me Nothin' but Good.''

So the question remains: Why?

I wish I had the answer.

Someday, I will.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

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Source: The Tribune

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