I’m feeling a bit fragile right now. My eldest daughter goes to college in Virginia. My second daughter will be a freshman at the same college in Virginia in the fall. I know what it is like to have a loved one far away and to worry about them. It is compounded by complications for me at work and at home.

As I tried to work today, I came back to the news. I saw people talking about it on Twitter. I read emails about it on various mailing lists. One pointed me to Psychological First Aid and to Group Psychological First Aid.

Over on John Edwards’ blog, Elizabeth Edwards wrote a wonderful post about Courage and Peace and Mercy and some of my thoughts came together. I like to talk a lot about community; how it takes place on line, its role in politics. It is times like these that we need to pull together as a community. It is times like these that we can pull together and show a little kindness, through communities of bloggers and emailers and online chatters and any and every other way we can reach out to one another.

If you blog, if you send emails, if you touch other people who may be far away from Virginia Tech, but who are related in one way or another, take a moment. Read the Psychological First Aid paper. Don’t try to be a psychologist (unless you are so trained), but think about what you can do to contact and engage people around you in a in a non-intrusive, compassionate, and helpful manner. Think about how you can provide emotional comfort and calmness.

You know, it’s probably a good way to interact with people all the time, and not simply in times of crisis.