horrible news

i just heard from my dear aunt that my 15 year old cousin was raped by a friend. oh, my, god. why do these things happen? how can i continue to believe in a good and loving god when things like this happen to good people? the question of pain and suffering. for a long time i thought that we *learn* from our suffering. the sifting of the wheat kind of thing. those that were meant to do good would become better people and those that will do bad things will just fall farther. now i'm not so sure. doesn't that seem cold-blooded? to make good people better and bad people worse. it's not fair! and god, do i know that life's not fair, princess. i guess we'll all just muddle through, like we always do. but i expect some answers.