Parallel worlds and distant realities

Each morning brings a chance to recover the signs of dreams, to taste coffee anew and imagine how things may develop in this pool of possibilities that each day digs. At he same time, it brings the first news of the previous day, since I do not follow up the TV news very regularly. These days I prepare and correct the papers of the final exams, always starting the ceremony by taking photos with my students. It relaxes them and sets the evaluation part in its real dimensions, I mean, as one out of many but not as the major or decisive part in a process of learning and interacting. This semester in particular, I feel I will dearly miss the students of the second level: they have been such nice people and we proceeded faster and deeper than with other similar groups in the past.
The counter reality, the sign of a close, parallel world comes through the web-edition of the Jordan Times: "...Gunmen in Iraq dragged 24 people, mostly teenage students, from vehicles and shot them dead, police said, as violence raged in the country on Sunday.
Iraqi leaders appeared deadlocked on naming new interior and defence ministers seen as critical to restoring stability in a country bloodied by relentless insurgent and sectarian killings.
Police said gunmen manning a makeshift checkpoint near Udhaim stopped cars approaching the small town 120km north of Baghdad and killed passengers.
The victims included youths of around 15-16 years who were on their way to the bigger regional town of Baqouba to write end of term exams, but also elderly men, they said.
"[The attackers] dragged them one by one from their cars and executed them," said a police official..."
While coming out, happy or anxious for the results, after having finished their term exams...