Repeat: At the Beginning Was Loss: Musings on the Olympics
Same as the last two years, I am not writing my blog right now because I need to navigate the twins returning to college. Unlike the last two years, I didn’t aim to rerun a post from the same date, years earlier. Instead, I used a random date generator, and then took the closest post to that date, which is why you may see posts about winter in the middle of the summer.
I scheduled these posts so the blog wouldn’t be empty, and I could have space to process my feelings. A cop-out, but forgive me. Having them go is really, really hard. I need mental space to feel what I am feeling, help the kids through the transition, and sit in the quiet for a moment on the other side.
It began before it began. The twins were climbing out of the bathtub, scrubbed and ready to watch the opening ceremony for the winter Olympics and I knew I had to explain it now, when things were quiet, rather than when the words were spoken before the ceremony. Because you knew the words were going to be spoken before the ceremony.
“You might hear tonight that a boy died during practice today. He was doing the luge and he fell off and hit his head and the doctor couldn’t fix him.”
They froze as if I had just told them that I was going to be giving away all their toys. “Was he doing bad listening?’ the ChickieNob finally asked.
“No. He was doing everything right, but sometimes accidents happen.”
