Beaudoin. Carr. And the week that is.

Even during a week rife with death, bullets,  and sadness, there can still be beauty, language that moves us, literature as salve, and immersion in the stories of people's lives that if they don't actually explain things in ways that allow us to make more sense of the world around us, they at least normalize the confusion. Two pieces that have struck us in just such a fashion this week are "Going Home" by Sean Beaudoin, who writes of growing-up in Newtown, and going home again in The Weeklings, and "What Music?" by Brian Carr, his account of his brother's death on the side of the road in The Rumpus. These pieces are as moving as they are timely. They speak to loss as much as they speak to the possibility of healing. And during a week such as this one, even the possibility of healing is something both beautiful and well worth embracing.