No relief from consequence

We should have seen it coming. The signs were all there, but hindsight lets one see the details in their entirety in a way the present moment refuses to allow. If we'd known, I cannot even try to list all the things we'd each have done differently. But the facts were too obscure, too varied to see their relation, let alone their meaning. Without stars falling from the sky, the hopeful faith we have that life will continue to maintain its balance tends to prevail. But this time, that faith was wrong, so very, very wrong. And the losses caused by this unintentional error of our human programming, so far beyond any expectation, were blinding. And we are still absorbing the enormity of it. To cast blame is the quickest response, but offers no relief from consequence, offers no response to the haunting question "what now?". No wonder the learned of our time had taught so uniformly the psychology of loss - that acceptance is only the end result of all grieving, that much must be battled before its reprieve may be earned. A lesson I think we're learning and needs be remembered, taught anew to the youth we fight so hard to protect, even if those learned are now long gone. Even if those learned, too, missed all the warning signs we each can see so clearly, now.