Another shooting tragedy had occurred yesterday in the US which killed at least 59 persons and left 527 persons injured. It has also been described as the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
The police named Stephen Paddock as the gunman and uncovered an arsenal of 42 firearms, explosives and thousands of ammunition rounds in both his Las Vegas hotel room and his home in Nevada.
Maggie Smith’s poem “Good Bones” was first published in an online journal in June 2016, a couple days both after the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and after the murder of British politician Jo Cox in West Yorkshire.
Those are just two out of so many tragic events added to the everyday pain and suffering that is being experienced in individual lives. There are so many tragic stories, pain, illness, abuse, broken relationships, betrayal, sorrow, injuries, crime and death in this wonderful yet terrible world.
According to the writer, the poem is one that grapples with pain and injustice, with unfairness and disillusionment, however, it is a call that we live in a world that can be improved.
As I read the disheartening news of yet another mass shooting, Smith’s poem was so apt as I read it again for an umpteenth time, only from a different point of view this time.
It was a message of hope and I was able to draw out three major lessons from the poem:
Read the poem below;
Good Bones by Maggie Smith
Life is short, though I keep this from my children.
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my children.
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you,
though I keep this from my children. I am trying
to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.
Obviously, the world hasn’t changed much after all, but here are major lessons to be learnt;
1) Be Optimistic
The poem, according to the writer, is about the struggle to love this world as it is, and to teach the young ones to love it too. Despite the relative optimism in the words of the poem and regarding the state of the world, the writer tells us that there may be no grounds for optimism.
“The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative estimate, though I keep this from my children”.
However, in spite of a dwindling economy, an erratic job market and a scary world, in as much as we are faced with ugly realities of the world, we should actively try to see the beautiful part to it as reasons why we should be optimistic.
Like the popular phrase suggests; When life hands you lemons, I think you do not have to make lemonade out of it. You get to choose what to do with those lemons, or maybe settle for some orange juice.
2) Live an exemplary life.
Life is short, however our own actions and decisions can make it even shorter. The writer describes these life-shortening actions and decisions as “a thousand ill-advised ways”.
Many of us are lost in the sauce of these ill-advised ways and perhaps it is too late for us to change, but like the writer says, these ill-advised ways should be hidden from the children.
You might not be proud of some things you had done in your past and you do not want your children to make the same mistakes like you did, hence, an exemplary life so that your legacy would forever be remembered.
3) Aspire to be the best version of YOU.
“For every loved child, there is a broken one. For every kind stranger, there is one who would break you”.
The world is at least half bad, and we should make conscious efforts to not add to the negative statistics. The pack is already too crowded, stand alone if you have to, but make sure to stand out.
Love indeed makes the world go round and so everyday is an opportunity to spread some more love.
The world is bad, but we can be good.
“Even if the world may seem at times like a dilapidated house that only a fool would buy, it still “has good bones”, the writer said.
You and I can make this place beautiful, right?
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