This morning, I found out that my cat Bootsie was killed by a coyote.

First reaction: Sadness.
Second reaction: I wish I'd been there to bash that coyote's head in with a golf club.

When something bad happens, it's very easy to want revenge. In many cases, it's easy to pretend that revenge would be justice.

This is not one of those times. Coyotes are predators. Bootsie was a skinny housecat. Bootsie was out at night. Bootsie confronted, rather than fled, a predator. An animal who's only crime as being feral.

There was no intent, no malice, no forethought to the tragedy. There wasn't even an unnatural circumstance to blame. Things just happened to happen this way. Nothing unjust happened. To reciprocate would be revenge. Revenge without justice is something we best try to avoid, lest destruction reign over peace.

Discussion Question: Where on the revenge/justice spectrum does Anakin's slaughter of the Sandpeople lie?

That fact that nothing wrong happened helped me a lot. I can be sad that I'll never see her again, I can be sad that she could just as easily have lived. But there's nothing to be angry at. There's no justice to be had, no justification for revenge.

I'll never understand why some people say "Everything happens for a reason" as though that were some sort of consolation. A reason means there is something to blame. The fact that someone had to claim there was reason implies that no reason is apparent, and there is no consolation in a trade of real pain for theoretical positives.

Discussion Question: What was the reason behind Shmi's death, and how do you think Anakin would have been affected by knowing it?

It's times like these that make me very glad there is no God. The last thing I want or need right now is a series of platitudes and a nebulous, partly responsible entity to complicate or obscure the extremely simple truth:

My kitty is dead, and I'm sad.