It was after dinner that I realized how truly askew our world has become.

I had followed the news of the shooting at the Navy Yard. I felt the familiar drop in my stomach when I heard the phrase ‘breaking news.’I had listened to the news when I was in the car and had checked in on the internet a few times. But the more I heard, the more I stopped really listening. There were no children hurt. The event did not appear to be terrorism. Is that the bar that we now hold for disasters? If I, a self proclaimed news junkie and worrier, was barely following the story, there are surely many, many people who didn’t even know anything had happened.

Thirteen people died and many more were injured and I didn’t call Rob at work to talk about it. I had lunch with a friend and neither of us even mentioned the event. A man, with a history of violence, carrying an automatic rifle, killed thirteen people. And it did not consume my day or my conversations.

I have to wonder what this means.

And I have to wonder when we, as a country, are going to talk seriously about gun control and the treatment of mental illness.

Perhaps now?