What to say, what to do...

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Oh man. The details coming out to Las Vegas are heart breaking. Seeing some of the initial posts saying "sending thoughts and prayers" reminded me that I often respond that way also. Is it too pat a response, too trite?  I mean it completely sincerely, because anyone I know (or know of) in distress for any reason is truly in my thoughts and prayers. It's shorthand for what I really want to say and don't necessarily want to blast out on social media: "I am so sorry for your loss, for your pain; I wish I could make it go away, that I could return things to how they should be; I'm frustrated that I can't."

I was turning these thoughts over in my head, thinking about how to write about this, and the very next day came across this article in the Washington Post, "Why Thoughts and Prayers Is Starting to Sound So Profane." What?  In a mere 24 hours "thoughts and prayers" is now pejorative, a meme, something to be mocked?

Check out "The Battle of Guns Vs Thoughts and Prayers"; "Thoughts and Prayers Are Not Enough"; "How Thoughts and Prayers Became the Stock Phrase of Tragedies"; and "In Times of Crisis What Do We Really Mean By Thoughts and Prayers?" which says: "The phrase "thoughts and prayers" has received a lot of well-deserved mocking lately."

Is it deserved? Sometimes when people use the phrase, it's what they actually mean to say. Ugh.