{"id":891,"date":"2026-04-15T03:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T03:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theayamba.com\/app\/?p=891"},"modified":"2026-04-15T04:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T04:02:20","slug":"why-you-should-read-a-mothers-reckoning-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theayamba.com\/app\/why-you-should-read-a-mothers-reckoning-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Read a Mother\u2019s Reckoning – I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

April 20, 2026, marks 27 years since the Columbine High School massacre. As you read these words, pause for a moment\u2014hold in your thoughts and prayers the families, the loved ones, and the lives forever changed. May their memories be carried with quiet reverence, and may we never forget the weight of that day.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susan Francis Klebold\u2019s ‘A Mother\u2019s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy<\/mark><\/a><\/em>‘<\/strong> is not an easy read. It is heavy, unflinching, and emotionally raw exposing the kinds of behaviors and warning signs that often hide in plain sight. It took me days to finish, but the lessons will stay with me for years, because it forces you to see life through a different, more sobering lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book also highlights the complicated boundary between illness and intent. And how many factors can influence how a child moves from being a loving son to someone capable of harming others. I recommend this book for countless reasons, but above all because choosing to live inside an indestructible bubble of ignorance in today\u2019s world is not just na\u00efve\u2014it is dangerous. Ignorance swells like inflammation; the world around us is reddening and throbbing with warning. Every day, something devastating happens somewhere. And believing that \u201cit could never happen to me\u201d<\/em> is a luxury no one can afford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are certain nightmares schools, parents, children, and entire communities should never have to endure\u2014yet they persist. Sue Klebold\u2019s son, Dylan Klebold (17), along with his friend Eric Harris (18), carried out the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. Together, they murdered 13 people\u201412 students and one teacher. Reports indicate that Harris killed eight victims and Klebold killed five before the two ended their lives in the school library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, Sue Klebold blamed herself, just as the world blamed her, for her son\u2019s grievous and irreversible actions. When I first learned about Columbine, I too judged the parents. I wondered how they could not have known their children were planning to destroy not only their own lives but the lives of others. How could such darkness grow unnoticed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the aftermath, many people said it would have been better if Eric and Dylan had never been born. Sue Klebold wrote, \u201cEric wanted to hurt people and didn\u2019t care if he died, and Dylan wanted to die and didn\u2019t care who died as well.<\/em>\u201d These were two teenagers who, in addition to the violence they inflicted, also ended their own lives. It would have been better if none of this ever happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violence against anyone is inconceivable, and like Sue Klebold, I am struck by how thin the line is between conscience and cold-bloodedness\u2014how some people cross that threshold into severe, unrelenting violence. Violence that ends lives in the most final way imaginable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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