Splagnon

And update on this.

Monica, Lindsay, Kelly, Jessica, and Crystal watched it happen. I talked to Monica about it on the phone last night and it sounds utterly horrific. The girl flew through the air, knocking off her shoe and ripping up her shirt. Her friend sobbed out "Don't leave me! Don't leave me! Oh, God, don't take her!" The tennis girls were all crying. Someone's mom found a blanket to put on the girl now lying in the middle of the street, which sent Lindsay and Jessica into hysterics because a body and a blanket never bodes well. Someone called 911 and the police and ambulance were there soon. The girl was rushed to the hospital, where a few hours later she woke up.

She's a sophomore at La Serna. Lindsay didn't recognize her but it still tears my heart apart to know it's someone I see on a daily basis, walking the halls, or maybe it's one of the mentees this year, or last year's freshman. And now her life could be changed forever.

But what's worse is Monica said no one in the stands even cared. This girl could have lost her life, she could be paralyzed, at the very least a few broken bones from the Honda that slammed into her and jetted off in a frenzy, but people cared more to see the pretty Homecoming floats and the crowning of our gorgeous Homecoming queen and Ben Burke and Louis Lozano down on the field, rather than think about this one girl whose life is entirely flipped upside down.


It reminds me of a conversation I had with Koka in the library yesterday, as I was rewriting a theme for Hard Times. I told her about the word "compassion" and how no one thinks of it as a good word, but I love it, because of the Greek word behind it. Splagnon. In the Biblical context, it isn't just kindness or care, it's a feeling of disgust, the breaking of your own heart when something is wrong with someone else, the need to do something to alleviate this pain. Your heart breaks with theirs. You cry out with their sobs. You feel their pain and just have to do something about it.

I wish the world would have splagnon instead of compassion.