At first I wanted to laugh – a mirthless creature which was not accompanied by shining eyes nor gleaming teeth – at the fact that a Trinbagonian was one of the victims of the Kenyan mall atrocities.

The cheerless chuckle was an attempt to mask the hurricane of emotions that threatened to devastate me.

Reading the post that only a friend could write, in all its contradictions and with a subtext of disbelief was the final catalyst for the tears. Tears for Ravi, for his parents and their sacrifices and  for our world now further impoverished by the absence of his gifts. Also tears for the others lost and the lost potential.

Clichés abound and sometimes grate, they are so often apt for the reactions we have when the unthinkable happens. One such is to use the fallen’s lives as inspiration to live my best life.

That’s my lesson from this debacle. What’s yours?