On the tragedy in Colorado

If you know me, you know I like to see a lot of movies.
It doesn't matter what movie it is, if you ask me to go see it, I'll most likely say yes.
Last night I saw The Dark Knight Rises, and this morning I awoke to the horrifying news of what happened to a group of people in Colorado who went and did the same.
When I heard about the tragedy this morning, it disturbed me in a way that surprised me. I couldn't really figure out why this story was affecting me so much more than any other story that appears on the news that speaks about tragic deaths and crazed gunmen.
Then I read the statement from director Christopher Nolan regarding the tragedy. In it, he calls the movie theater his "home."
That's when it hit me, because the movie theater isn't Nolan's home, it's everyone's.
In college I took a communications class where we discussed what made fast food restaurant so popular. One of the reasons is familiarity. I can go to the Burger King down the road or one in California and find an identical menu and a familiar floor plan.
We like the familiar.
Movie theaters go a step beyond that because the differences between an AMC theater and a Marcus theater is small, and when you are in your seat, those differences all but vanish. You can go to any theater in the country and while outside they my be different, inside they all have seats, sticky floors, and a big silver screen.
It's familiar and it's safe. It's a second home. It's a place we go when we want to escape the troubles of our world to be engrossed in the troubles of another. But one we can walk away from when it's over.
That's what makes this tragedy hit so close. Our safety has been violated, and it's not easy to write off. We can't say it was just part of living in a big city, because it happened in Colorado suburb. A town like any other, in a theater like any other.
It was a man with no discernible agenda simply looking to take the lives of the unsuspecting.
He took advantage of people's goodwill, and in doing so violated one of the last safe places.
The movie theater isn't destroyed forever, but it is certainly changed. And it is a change that is impossible to ignore, and harder to reverse.