The mass shooting in an Orlando gay club has left the nation stunned and saddened.
The massacre, the worst-ever in the history of the United States, has been debated in the news, over coffee, in church halls and office hallways. It has led every news cycle since it was first reported.
We likely will never know the reason behind the shootings or be able to assuage the bottomless pain left by these deaths.
We’ll only really know that the killer had access to guns that no civilian could ever need and he killed 49 loving, caring people who could have been our friends or family members.
People who went out Saturday night to dance and laugh and play.
They were among friends.
What do we do, in the face of this tragedy?
Ultimately, as Lin Manuel-Miranda reminded so many of us at the Tony Awards, there is truly only one answer, one reaction, one Thing To Do to show outrage and support and sadness.
“And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside,” he said, with a voice slightly cracking, as the crowd swelled into applause.
We answer with love.
And what does this love look like?
It looks like tonight’s interfaith service in Peterborough at the Unitarian Universalist church, which, along with other places of worship, has created a safe space where we can grieve, and remember, and love each other all the more because there are 49 fewer souls in the world today.
It looks like a family sitting down to talk about what it means to be different, and what it means to be different in more than one way, and how all that matters is that we are all the same inside.
It looks like, as a nation, confronting the hatred and bigotry still directed at our country’s LGBT community so we all can dance and love and live without fear.