I have friends who live in Nebraska. Author Timothy Schaffert is one of them. He lives in Omaha. You can read about Timothy's work at http://www.timothyschaffert.com/

As soon as I heard about the shooting yesterday, I sent Timothy a note, to make sure he was okay. He sent me the following note back:

Hi Karen,

As far as I know all my loved ones are okay… I haven’t heard a complete list of victims. Rodney had taken the day off work so we could go shopping at that very mall that afternoon, but he ended up getting called into work, so I just stayed home and wrote. So a holiday elf seemed to have rescued me.

 Today’s paper:  a banner at the top with a list of various mass slayings: “San Ysidro” “Columbine” etc.  Then the headline: “It happened to us!”  Ugh. They wear their terrorism envy on their sleeves.

Hope all is well with you… T.

 ****

While I'm thankful to hear that T. is okay, and that a "holiday elf" prevented him from going to that very mall yesterday afternoon, dozens of others across the country are receiving emails and phone calls relating their loved one's last moments.

The cynic in me notes how this makes a good case for online shopping. But the realist in me believes that such disconnect was part of Robert Hawkins's problem. I can't help but wonder, how much time did he spend on the computer, dreaming of the virtual world in which he was wanted, loved, and, oh, yeah, most of all, famous?

I'm not a famous person, but I know some people who are. They are nice people. They teach Sunday School, and attend Mass. They wear Crocs or Birkenstocks. The most entertaining stories they tell are not about all the other famous people they know but about their grandmas and their grandads. Or their kids. They drink whiskey on the rocks or iced tea, usually sweetened. They talk politics, religion and all those other taboo subjects that less confident voices shy away from.

Some famous people are stingy or aloof, making contact only when they need something. But most are more than generous with their advice and humor. All the famous people I know are rarely ever mean. Sometimes they tell ribald stories of others, more famous than them, who said or did the rudest thing, ever. 

Meanness and poor manners are not tolerated by the famous people I've met. The famous people I know are some of the most gentle-spirited souls. For the most part, they are appreciative of all the gifts and opportunities God's given them. They want to change the world. To make it a better place. So they write things that challenge readers to think, or to care more deeply. 

The famous people I know might create a character like Robert Hawkins, but they do so to show readers what happens when a society becomes disconnected from each other, and distanced from God, the source of all goodness. It's clear that Robert Hawkins confused being famous with being infamous. It's a jarring distinction that a lot of media folks fail to make. It's no wonder Hawkins misunderstood it.

How is it that a 19-year-old kid, with a history of depression, can boast about his SKS semiautomatic rifle, passing it around at the dinner table the night before his killing spree, as it were, and those closest to him, those who claimed to care most about him, thought nothing of it? 

The Omaha shooter has given us a lot to ponder. I pray we come away from this tragedy seeking to be more caring, more connected, more rationale. But that only happens in stories with happy endings, told by people with good hearts.