What happened yesterday in Boston has really disturbed me on a level I'm unfamiliar with, which I find especially perplexing given that I was living in London when their transportation system was attacked in 2005. You'd think having been physically present in London would naturally have made that event more impactful for me, but Boston has left me far more shaken.
Maybe it's that I was younger at the time, and knew I was going home to small town North Carolina a few weeks after the attack. Maybe my sense of vulnerability has only become more prominent as I've gotten older and become more aware of heinous things, and the circle of people I love (and couldn't live without) has expanded. Maybe it's because I now call a relatively big city home.
All I really know is that my heart is heavy for everyone who was there yesterday and/or who has felt the tragedy weigh on them in some way or another, and that everything I was worrying about before yesterday afternoon seems so trivial.
As I forced myself to turn off CNN and stop reading the news last night, my mind went back to something I read after the equally senseless and disturbing Newtown tragedy. It is something Fred Rogers once said:
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”
I am so thankful for the helpers.
Maybe it's that I was younger at the time, and knew I was going home to small town North Carolina a few weeks after the attack. Maybe my sense of vulnerability has only become more prominent as I've gotten older and become more aware of heinous things, and the circle of people I love (and couldn't live without) has expanded. Maybe it's because I now call a relatively big city home.
All I really know is that my heart is heavy for everyone who was there yesterday and/or who has felt the tragedy weigh on them in some way or another, and that everything I was worrying about before yesterday afternoon seems so trivial.
As I forced myself to turn off CNN and stop reading the news last night, my mind went back to something I read after the equally senseless and disturbing Newtown tragedy. It is something Fred Rogers once said:
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”
I am so thankful for the helpers.
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