Oh. My. God.
What a week this has been. It began on Monday with the explosion of two, homemade bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon…three people killed and many others horribly maimed…a young police officer shot on Thursday…and it ended last evening with the capture of the second suspect who had been hiding in someone’s backyard in Watertown.
In spite of the fact that the second terrorist is still alive, nothing he can say will somehow “clear things up” about why all of this happened. It was senseless, calculated, and evil. Those dead are gone forever, and those who lost limbs will never recover them.
I can’t believe how recently the nation was sickened by the shootings at Newtown. And yet…here we are again, with more senseless killing of innocent people. I know that this happens all over the world. I don’t mean to imply that these events are somehow more horrific than events that have occurred anywhere else. Personally, however, these last two tragedies were very close to home…both to my childhood home in the case of Newtown, and my to current one in the case of this Boston/Cambridge/Watertown nightmare. I know that it shouldn’t make a difference to the horror of it all, but it does…only in that I’m filled with more disbelief.
.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
– John Donne
I’ll post about art next week.
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Thinking of you all Elizabeth and good to know you are survivors of this latest senseless catastrophe. Somehow natural disasters, which are always terrible, just do hold the same horror compared with the shock of mans incredible inhumanity to man. John Donne said it perfectly and we should never let ourselves become “islands” just committed to each other and all around us. Keep safe.
Comment by Ruth Quinn April 21, 2013 @ 3:02 amRuth
Thanks so much, Ruth! It was a scary week around here…luckily, we were okay.
Comment by slightlywonky April 27, 2013 @ 9:00 pm