Tonight students, staff, administrators and faculty at my university came together to pray and to mourn those whose lives were affected by the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Christian, Muslim, and Jewish prayers were offered up as we all stood together with our candles flickering against the darkness of the night. There were luminaries for each person lost, with names and ages listed. Seeing those luminaries made it feel more real to me somehow, similar to the effect of seeing the acres of white crosses at WW II veterans' cemeteries in France. Each one represented a life, a human being's loves, fears, hopes and dreams. Each one represented a constellation of friends and family members whose lives will never again be the same.
The vigil was sorrowful, but there was hope in it too. I was heartened by the collective response of the university community, and I took comfort in how many people were there to remember those lost and to pray for their families and friends. May their memory be eternal.
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