Vine
A lot of what makes sad things in the world hurt so much is our inability to comprehend them. A parent losing a child or a terrorist executing a hostage or a gunman shooting up a school is so painful because the ‘why’ of it is nowhere to be found, these awful happenings exacerbated by the fact that we don’t understand the reasons for them. That’s what makes tragedy so hard to cope with. To come to terms with. If only we had reasons.
Which is what makes this raccoon accidentally dropping his sugary snack into a puddle so painful to watch. He doesn’t get why his food is gone. He didn’t do anything wrong. He was a good raccoon, but the Lord nonetheless lashed out at him. You can see the combination of equal part mystification and hurt in his eyes and it is brutal.
Sure, we know why it happened. We understand basic chemistry, and dissolution, but that doesn’t mean much to this raccoon. Sitting him in a classroom won’t stop his tears.
Maybe on a level above us, people with a different plane of comprehension know why the awful things that befall us occur. Maybe that’s something to take solace in. But this raccoon has nothing like that, we have nothing like that, and so we grieve with him.
[Via @RyanJohnNelson]