As we head into the last week of school before Xmas break and look forward to spending time with our family and loved ones, the events that transpired this past week at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut abruptly force a pause in our lives, one pregnant with reflection, learning and empathy. 

After hearing about this tragedy myself and understanding the major headlines, I had to break away from the news cycle.  Emerging stories of the plot, motive and senseless brutality, mixed a powerful emotional cocktail of both deep anger and deep sadness within me.  Such senseless acts of violence demand a sort of reckoning, a means by which to make sense of this senselessness, and one in which our modern news and information cycles are incapable of producing because they require a deeper, longer reflection that minute-by-minute, round the clock coverage cannot create time and space for.  I found myself not wanting to read or hear about this tragedy.  I found myself wanting our nation's politicians to pass stronger, more progressive gun control laws.  Of course, better gun control laws while perhaps warranted and necessary, addresses the symptoms but not the root cause.  Tragedies like this one emanate from members of society who at one point long before the tragedy stopped being members of society. 

Of course this self-imposed break from the 24-hour news cycle, lasted like all such breaks I've taken, about 24 hours.  What drew me back this time was the subtext behind the headlines.  The emerging stories of teachers and administrators at Sandy Hook that literally laid down their lives for the students they served.  A different set of emotions welled up within me this time.  Pride.  Awe.  Respect.  Hope. 

We live in a country and society that celebrates the spirit of individualism.  Never has that been truer than in our modern age where one can purchase a coffee from say Starbucks that can require more than 5 syllables to describe.  Our nation's military, arguably the most non-individualistic of public institutions, recruits for its ranks with slogans like join the "Army of One".  Even our schools promote a student-centric learning model that meets every individual student right where they are.  None of these concepts or the marketing efforts behind them would ever have flown in our parents' generation.  I am not bemoaning the progress of society or the benefits of individualization either in consumerism, armed forces or education.  All of these customization influences have infiltrated every aspect of our lives from how our nation drinks its morning latte to how it defends itself to how it educates its next generation.  In doing so, we've created incredible benefits, both tangible and intangible.  Irrefutably, we have created better coffee, more resilient armed forces and more innovative schools than our parents' generation.  But there's a dangerous undercurrent to this tightened focus on individualization because it can also loosen the bonds of community, which can lead to some individuals falling out of the normal bonds of friendship, empathy, love and reciprocity needed for a society to function.  When that happens, events like Sandy Elementary School's tragedy unfortunately can happen and no legislative bill can rectify that completely.  It starts with our own reflection on our network of friendships and the students we serve to ensure that the student-centered approach is tethered to a community of learners that collectively watches over and cares for each other.  School like society is only as strong as our weakest members and functions well when everyone is connected and contributing to the welfare of more than just themselves. 

The courageous teachers and administrators of Sandy Hook last week displayed what we know but so often forget to demonstrate:  the value of our individual lives is inextricably tied to the value of all of our lives that we collectively share as created beings that have been bestowed with the gift of life from our Creator.  Too many lives were lost in this tragedy.  But our brave counterparts at Sandy Hook saved life, its essence.