The current US State Senator from Virginia exhibited a heart so large that nothing but the term "unconditional love" could describe what transpired.
His 24 year old son, a brilliant student and former campaigner for Senator Deed's election, developed a mental illness of an undiagnosed nature; undiagnosed because the night he definitively broke apart, there were no beds available in the state's mental hospitals to take him in.
The father and son had been out on an errand and upon returning home went to different parts of the house. When Senator Deeds stepped outside to check a noise, his son came up behind him and began stabbing him in the head and lungs, miraculously not killing him but landing him in critical condition.
What stopped the young Deeds from finishing off the job? In midst of the attack, his father kept saying to him, as he was being stabbed in the back repeatedly, "Gus, I love you. Why are you doing this? I love you. I love you."
Deeds credits these words for possibly halting the rain of knife thrusts. He then staggered onto the road, where a passing car driven by his cousin stopped and the life-affirming relative whisked him to an emergency room. Shortly after, the young man took his own life with a gun.
Of course this begs the question, why wasn't the son taken to an emergency room when they were looking for beds in a mental hospital but couldn't find any open ones? Without being privy to details, and not being a detective, going down this line of reasoning is fruitless.
But what was amazing to watch were the reactions of the now recuperated Senator Deeds. In a CNN interview, he wept through the entire interview as he described his son as the most wonderful, loving person he knew. He could only remember the potential of that young man and the love he held for him. The illness, the violence, the assault, faded away in the pure vision this man had for his child.
It is said in the Tibetan Buddhist scriptures that unconditional love is most like the love a mother has for her only son. In this case, let's give Senator Deed a round of applause. Despite his male body, his heart transcended all dichotomies and traumas to melt into the purest love.
His 24 year old son, a brilliant student and former campaigner for Senator Deed's election, developed a mental illness of an undiagnosed nature; undiagnosed because the night he definitively broke apart, there were no beds available in the state's mental hospitals to take him in.
The father and son had been out on an errand and upon returning home went to different parts of the house. When Senator Deeds stepped outside to check a noise, his son came up behind him and began stabbing him in the head and lungs, miraculously not killing him but landing him in critical condition.
What stopped the young Deeds from finishing off the job? In midst of the attack, his father kept saying to him, as he was being stabbed in the back repeatedly, "Gus, I love you. Why are you doing this? I love you. I love you."
Deeds credits these words for possibly halting the rain of knife thrusts. He then staggered onto the road, where a passing car driven by his cousin stopped and the life-affirming relative whisked him to an emergency room. Shortly after, the young man took his own life with a gun.
Of course this begs the question, why wasn't the son taken to an emergency room when they were looking for beds in a mental hospital but couldn't find any open ones? Without being privy to details, and not being a detective, going down this line of reasoning is fruitless.
But what was amazing to watch were the reactions of the now recuperated Senator Deeds. In a CNN interview, he wept through the entire interview as he described his son as the most wonderful, loving person he knew. He could only remember the potential of that young man and the love he held for him. The illness, the violence, the assault, faded away in the pure vision this man had for his child.
It is said in the Tibetan Buddhist scriptures that unconditional love is most like the love a mother has for her only son. In this case, let's give Senator Deed a round of applause. Despite his male body, his heart transcended all dichotomies and traumas to melt into the purest love.
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