I just finished reading the novel “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult. WOW! Boy, does this book start you thinking. Even though this book is fiction, the author has taken elements of several school shootings that have occurred in the last few years and wove them into a thought-provoking story. The story line weaves through all of the lives that were connected to the shooter, who had been bullied and teased at school. His torment started on his first day of Kindergarten and continued until the fateful day he decided to get even and stop the torture he had been enduring for ten years.
Who was really to blame for this life destroying act? Was it his mother who told him to be tough, his father who taught him how to use a gun, the second grade boys who threw his lunch box out the window of the bus, the boy who de-pantsed him in the cafeteria, the girl who had been his friend and then abandoned him, or does all of the blame lie with the shooter?
How many times do we go through life not realizing that one small action on our part may be contributing to a monumental event or tragedy? When we snap at our children when we’ve had a bad day, when we are rude to the sales clerk when a mistake is made, or when we ignore a plea for help? Are we going to commit the action that is the last straw? Can we make a difference to someone for the better rather than the worse?
I don’t have answers for these questions, but this book has definitely started me thinking.
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