Bear witness to the dead, to those who may no longer contribute a verse. Today's episode is an essay meditating on the mass shootings - the terrorist attacks - that occurred in El Paso and Dayton on August 3.

The victims of these attacks, and all like them whose lives are cut short, deserve for us to hear their names and pause to reflect how fortunate we are to have the chance to keep creating, keep changing the world.

Why write a novel or make a movie or make music? Why try to advance equality for all, or make some small change to what seems like a doomed environment? Why even try to keep one bullet from taking an innocent life? Surely we can’t change things.

Surely we can’t change things if we don’t try.

I do find it helpful to look for the good in the world. Small things. Look for the helpers, as Fred Rogers tells us. Not just the helpers, but any place where you can find light shining on the world or shine some light in your own way.

In trying, crying, stressful, messy times, look to the helpers in whatever ways you can. Be a helper in whatever ways you can.  However you may, keep creating and keep contributing your verse.