Opaque Lucidity

Ignorance Of Youth

Three students from my high school were involved in an accident yesterday afternoon; one of them, a teammate of one of our nephews, was killed. His car was hit head-on by one of his fellow students, a girl who was drunk at 5:30 in the afternoon. The third girl was taken to a hospital in Louisville and is in good condition. One teenager's life has been ruined---one teenager's life has been ended. No amount of anger or sadness will change any of that now.

One of the girls with whom I went through grade school and high school died in an auto wreck 20 years ago last month. There was no alcohol involved this time, but lives were ruined. I know what's going to happen at Providence over the course of the next few weeks, and I wish like hell none of those kids had to live through it.

First, there will be an outpouring of grief, a sort of bonfire that keeps growing as the students feed off of each other's sadness. When you're 15, you don't know how to put anything into perspective. Every break-up, fight or bad grade is a huge mountain to climb, and the death of a fellow student is Mt. Everest. Right now, no one can see a day when this will be behind them all.

Then something else will happen: some people will try to make this about themselves. They will talk about how they were secretly in love with John or secretly envied him or had an argument with him on Friday. It's immaturity, and I guess it's also a way of handling this giant thing that is new and foreign. The last time I talked to Cara, I was kidding her about leaving class early. I wish I had thanked her for her friendship and kindness. You never know, so say it now.

Then, slowly, things will return to normal. The closeness that the students feel now will dim and everyone will return to his clique. The cruelties of teenage life will return and very few people will remember how insignificant it all seems in comparison to the loss of a life that was still in its springtime. Some people will grow into adulthood and never think about these days again. Others will remember them as the first time they glimpsed what life holds in store for all of us.