In which the pond refuses to go there, that dark and dank and despairing place of mass murder ...

This isn't a day for blogging, this is a day for grieving, and for condolences to the friends and families of the innocents who lost their lives.

This isn't a day for making political, or ideological, capital out of the deaths of innocents.

This isn't a day for the usual fun of arguing with the reptiles.

The pond watched a debrief/press conference last night as a reporter - a Murdochian - seized on the deaths of innocents with a question loaded with political barbs. The Prime Minister wisely avoided the appalling intent.

No doubt there'll be much speculation, but the pond was reminded that only a year or so, one man was mistakenly swept up in the blame game around the Bondi Junction murders. He got a nice settlement out of it, but no doubt would have settled on being left out of it.

This is a time when social media will run riot. There will be misinformation, allegations and division and hate in abundance.

The blame game, the fomenting of hate, will likely whirl out of control.

This isn't the time for the pond to become one of those rioters, another of those blame gamers.

To settle back and spend a usual day bickering with the reptiles isn't possible for the pond.

One thing's certain. Whatever ideological or theological notions that might have motivated the killers, that might have driven the bloody murders on the beach, those notions have taken an immeasurable hit ... and the killers' actions have caused any associated causes immense harm.

The pond will confess to gawping along at the live coverage last night on ABC News, while appalled by the sights.

Some might think the pond a coward for not tackling the reptiles this day, but that's entirely the point. There's nothing to be gained by joining in the frenzy.

The pond was however, inspired by the sight of a man, apparently wounded twice, coming up from behind to disarm one of the mass murderers. 

Apparently this was a local fruit shop owner, a certain Ahmed Al Ahmed. He grabbed hold of the killer's gun, and put it down, a righteous response, while the killer retreated. 

The pond's instinct was to pull the trigger and put the rabid one down, which would have been just another addition to the carnage.

The pond's reaction was visceral. It's easy to watch the American disease from afar, the almost innumerable deaths by gun violence, but this was too close to home.

Bondi beach is totemic to the pond, like it is to many others, even as it's been overrun by visitors. 

The pond first saw the ocean there, a disbeliever from the remote bush astonished by the sight of waves and an endless, vast amount of water.

It was the place of the ritual first putting toes in water, until, family legend has it, the pond retreated in teary disbelief. The pond still has a memory of the awe the sea inspired. (It was probably a two footer that towered over the pond).

The beach, and the innocents who flocked there for fun and to celebrate a Jewish religious holiday, didn't need this desecration.

The pond will leave the zealotry this day to the reptiles...and instead settle for quoting just one response ...

If only the pond could believe that there was a long absent lord ... if only there was more to offer than thoughts and prayers to those caught up in grief at the carnage...

With that thought in mind, the pond will allow the immortal Rowe to go there ...