Conflicted.

Today is obviously the Super Bowl.  No matter who you were rooting for--hopefully you can agree that it was an amazing and competitive game. I was a pseudo NY Giants fan for the day, so I am moderately happy. (Don't call me a bandwagon fan--I really had no stake in either team, and as of tomorrow I don't care about the Giants.)

But, I ended the game feeling a little conflicted. I checked my phone after the game, and I saw this jaw-dropping news story:

I lived in the Tacoma area for 5-6 years, and the story of Josh Powell was on local news frequently since 2009. The story kept getting more and more bizarre, and this is a horribly sad ending to the lives of those two young boys.

As I got home after the game, I reflected on this story--while I did not know the Powell family,  felt a lot of grief over the untimely death of these boys. They have already been through so much in the past 2.5 years. I hope their family can find peace in knowing they are in a place where they are free of pain and free of the tumultuous circus that has surrounded their lives since the disappearance of their mother.  I hope the State of Washington and the State of Utah can look at their investigative and child protective services and learn from any mistakes that may have put these boys in danger. I hope that there is peace amidst the anger that their family must be feeling.

I had a project planned for today, but I put it aside. I felt that I needed to do something in reflection of this horrible story. I used Eric Clapton's song, Tears in Heaven.  He wrote this song about his young son who died after falling from an apartment window. I have to believe, that Clapton was feeling a sense of injustice and anger at the death of his son, but the song is so peaceful.

Sorry to be a downer on Super Bowl Sunday. However, I'm glad to have this platform to be able to reflect and digest horrible stories like this. I'm hoping -that soon- there will be an opportunity for me to reflect on better news.