Following the law led them to lawlessness

Life is one big long list of laws.

Nature's laws say that you have to breathe, eat, drink, sleep, and so on. If you don't do these things, then you die, or at least find yourself unable to live a full life.

Man's laws say that you have to do this, that, and the other in order to live. Things cost money. You can't walk into a store, grab a gumstick from a shelf, and then walk out the door without paying for it.

(Well, you can steal things from stores, but if you get caught, then The Man locks you up.)

Many believe in God's law, or karma, or whatever you want to call it - if you do bad things to others, then somewhere down the line someone will do something bad to you.

But, as I've said before, if you're not afraid of dying, and/or of being locked up, and/or of being made to pay for your crimes, then you can do anything and everything - within limits.

(Some crimes are easier to get away with than others. Stealing a gumstick is one thing; putting a bullet in the store clerk's head is another.)

But then you have to ask, if you can do anything, then why do you do A and not B?

If I were totally fearless, would I go on a shooting spree? Not likely. I'd rather rob a bank and go on a shopping spree. If I got caught, I might end up killing myself, if only to keep from being locked up, but I wouldn't kill anyone else unless I had to.

But Eric and Dylan wanted to blow up their school cafeteria, mow down the kids running for their lives, and then either goad the cops into offing them or off themselves. They wanted to break all the laws on the books, starting with "Thou shalt not kill." Why did they want to do this?

The answer is that they were following the laws laid down by their minds. The mind's laws trump everything else.

The mind runs the show. It says to the body, "Do this. I want you to do this more badly than I want you to do anything else." The body always does what the mind tells it to do.

It tells the legs, "Walk over to that gun." The hands: "Pick it up." The eyes: "Aim at that girl sitting over there." The fingers: "Blow her away." The throat: "Laugh so that Satan can hear you in Hell."

Why does it want these things? Why does it want that girl - or any girl - to be blown away? And why does one mind want to blow away girls and boys, while another one only wants to blow gum bubbles?

Will we ever know?