There are times when I come up with a million and one ideas for posts and then by the time I get through my day and sit at my computer, I have completely forgotten what I wanted to say.
This may be one of those times so forgive me if I end up rambling.
Last weekend I went to visit a friend who lives out of state. Over the years since she moved there with her husband, it has become a haven for me. She has added a daughter, now thirteen, and two cats. It's a wonderfully cozy niche in the mountains of southern Pennsylvania. I go there to heal.
Well it ended up being a more chaotic weekend than I would have had if I had stayed home. Her daughter was in a play and my friend was starting a new job and family was in and out and a big project was due and there wasn't a lot of down time. I had a ball. I left there as relaxed as ever.
It took me seven hours to get home and I spent most of that time singing to the radio and hatching a story that could turn into a book or a series of books or nothing at all.
When I got home, my husband informed me of the tragedy at the Boston Marathon. My thoughts went immediately to another friend whose daughter is about to graduate from BU. I was relieved to find out that she was safe.
But I was struck by the fact that some people were not. The news was still sketchy and no one knew how many people were killed or injured. When things like this happen, I can't help but wonder why humans can do such terrible things to their fellow humans. It's baffling.
But I was also struck by the spirit of some people who ran into the crowd to help their fellow humans. Not just the first responders...but the ordinary citizens who probably don't think they did anything extraordinary.
A marathon is an inspiring event to people like me...long distance running is something I don't think I could ever understand. You run until you're panting and your eyes are going to pop out of your head and your muscles burn and you are hallucinating...I just don't get it. I don't think I'll be running any marathons any time soon or ever at all. Small sprints are more my speed. Very small. And not even all that sprint-y.
I watched the news while they were trying to take the second bomber into custody. I found myself praying that they didn't kill him. I believed, or hoped, that he may be able to provide some minor tidbit of intel that would help thwart any further acts of terror that may be in the offing. There had been enough death over those few days and all of it senseless. I truly felt for the poor families of all those victims. And these two boys who got all pumped up with hate...I even had a little pity for them...and for their families who just couldn't believe that these two boys would do anything remotely like this. We have since learned that maybe the older boy was filled with some kind of hatred for our ways and wanted to do some damage.
These terrorists don't understand that the lesson isn't theirs to teach. Most American citizens, and most citizens of the world as well, are just going about their lives.
We all go to school...I'm not talking about Third World countries and countries where girls aren't allowed to get an education...but most of us go to school and graduate and go to college or trade schools or out into the world to make a living. We get married, move in with life partners, have children or buy a dog or adopt a cat or a ferret or a parakeet...we spend most our lives working and trying to stay afloat...we don't take time to stop and consider that someone is resenting us because we have all this opportunity and all this entitlement and all this stuff and we don't appreciate any of it...and because our government is using their countries for oil and power and whatever else, they blame us because they think we are all the same...and maybe we are what they think...complacent, intolerant, irreverent. They say, "We'll show them!" and they try to blow us up or they crash planes into our buildings because we believe that girls SHOULD go to school and every nation should have clean water and schools and art and music. We are walking our dogs and cleaning out the litter box and feeding the fish and we are buying groceries and cars and condos. We are so caught up in getting little Sally to ballet class and soccer practice and honor society meetings, and Rover to the groomer and Fluffy to the cat whisperer that we don't realize that there are whole villages being taught to hate our entitled lives.
There are people out there who want to blow us up. They want to destroy our infrastructure. They want to scare us with nuclear weapons. But, I don't think these people are the majority. Only the people who want to inflict terror on us feel that we should suffer and die for our ways.That is why we call them "terrorists".
I would like to believe that most people are tolerant and good and don't hate because of diversity. I know there are many in the world and lots in this country who hate because of skin color, religion, sexual orientation or political affiliation. Diversity has always made this country strong. It is not an excuse to hate.
These terrorists, foreign and domestic alike, are no better than bullies on the playground. Why bring a knife to a gunfight? Why bring a bomb to a foot race? I doubt very many people there had some kind of political agenda. They just wanted to run or cheer on their loved ones. And they paid dearly for the privilege.
But the human spirit is resilient and we still have Neil Diamond and the New York Yankees still paid homage to the Boston Red Sox. And in London, at their own marathon, people wore ribbons and dedicated their run to the victims of the Boston tragedy. We are not undone by what they do.
No comments:
Post a Comment