One of my wife’s friends from college went missing on Thursday. Before I write about it, the essentials:
Facebook Page: “Find Sierra Shields”
While I didn’t know her personally, it is important to note that thousands of people have liked and shared the post, and there is a large, organized effort to gather information that’s a coalition of friends, family, colleagues, co-workers, and even random concerned people. Clearly she has touched many lives in a positive way.
Watching this from the outside, this is a heart-wrenching situation, obviously. While I don’t have any personal grief, my wife has been in an emotional stasis for the past few days. There’s no way to know how she should be reacting, since the lack of information prevents any sort of reasonable reaction. Almost any reasonable conclusion is negative, but not knowing for sure is debilitating.
All I can do is console and reassure, which I’ve done, but I can’t say “it’ll be OK.” I don’t know. Chances are it won’t be OK. False hope isn’t good for anyone.
The only great thing I’ve extracted from this is the comment sections in news outlets. For the most part, it has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s a healthy reminder of the fact that there is humanity out there still.
THIS SITE IS ABOUT WORDS. 