Boston is a beautiful city. The climate is harsh in winter and glorious in spring. Summer brings flourishing days, terrible humidity, and the city welcomes the cooling air and brilliant foliage of its New England autumn.
Boston is widely known for its history, its exceptional universities, its culture, its thriving street life, its stoic spirit. It’s a city that delights in its traditions – like the Marathon.
Yesterday’s events in Boston remain surreal, though I reside hundreds of miles away. Surreal, perhaps because Boston is my home. Perhaps because my son attends college there.
He called shortly after yesterday’s bombings. He’s fine.
A flurry of texts followed over the next two hours – my son reassuring me that all his friends were accounted for. His brother did the same, though he attends school elsewhere – letting me know that he, too, accounted for his friends in Boston.
When you’re hundreds of miles away, you feel helpless, connecting dots you don’t want to connect – to worst possible scenarios, to other attacks, to times when the world seemed to stop.
I see posts around the web, places I usually visit. It’s business as usual. And I understand.
But today, I’m remembering days of watching runners pass Wellesley College, as we cheered them on. I’m remembering the nightlife in the Copley Square area. I’m remembering the immortality we feel when we’re young, which changes as we grow older of course, and when we have our own children.
I’m watching CNN as I have been since yesterday afternoon. I’ve been reading of remarkable heroism.
There are tasks to be accomplished today, but I admit, the details and activities that normally consume me seem unimportant. It’s difficult to concentrate.
People matter. Everything else? Not so much.
I’m immeasurably grateful that my sons and their friends are okay. I ache for the victims, for their families, for the runners from all over the world who participate in what should be a joyful event, for those who were present and will surely need our help and understanding, for the city of Boston and those who are connected to its heartbeat.
I ache for a world in which we cannot seem to put an end to violence.
Broken heart for the victims, the families, and the beautiful city of Boston. Grateful to the heroic response of the first responders and the support teams, hospitals, volunteers. xox
http://thestylexpert.blogspot.com/2013/04/boston.html
So sad for all the victims and their families. I felt sick because I could not get in touch with my son for over an hour. His girlfriend was at finish line the day before and I had no idea if she was there or working. Thankfully they were okay and my son was working at the ER treating the injured. My heart aches with you and the world.
So glad your son is fine. I heard from my sister who lives near the route and stepsister runs marathons but was not in this one. My relief at their safety is tempered with sadness for the families who have lost loved ones and for those that are critically injured. The bombing has been widely publicised here in the UK so I know that the sympathy is extended over the ocean.
This made me very angry at the perpetrators. I had made out an emotional position. I deleted it.
I now offer, prayers to the deceased, the injured, their families and the people of Boston.
To the perpetrators I suggest you pray, for God may be your only source of mercy.
I’m so glad your son is all right. Both my sisters make their home in Boston now, and we all went to the same college there, once upon a time. So many friends are still in the area, some who were along the race course but happened to leave before the blasts. Terrifying.
I cannot believe the depths our world has sunk too… I am sickened by this tragedy in Boston… it is unfathomable… and so, so pointless… I find I can’t think about anything else… xv
I can’t watch the news of it any more. Not after first learning and being drawn to my television and then the media repeats and repeats the same images and seem to cheapen the tragedy. I have to, and we all have to, process such senseless, evil, tragic acts in our own way. We all have to reach for peace – a peace that will never reach a point of understanding.
I understand, Barb. I’ve turned off all the news – the various ways it can reach us.
What Vicki said is exactly what I think and feel. We are helpless to defend ourselves against these
man-made monsters. They care not if they are punished as they are already ready to die. They have been indoctrinated since childhood into the mindset that insists on this kind of violence. Like madmen, they know no remorse. Seeking to understand them is useless. Our system will prevail, of course, but at huge costs to us, personally, and to our inherent freedoms. I am so thankful your family and their friends are OK. Many, many Houstonians run in this marathon and every single one of them are so happy to be home again, but none of them will forget and they know they were blessed. You are very fortunate as you think clearly and in a 360 way. I’m not this smart. All I can think of is how much each one of us is going to have to sacrifice to go to a football game or a movie from now on.
Marsha, please wait for the evidence. I don`t think we can assume that we know which type of animal did this at this point, whether home grown or foreign. Trying to understand them allows us to intervene (by anticipating and predicting), have more human intel (with less reliance on technology), more special forces and equivalent federal agents (FBI) to mobilize, a will to act surgically without a blunt hammer, and a will to act in advance would go a long way. We could quit wasting money on cameras and other actions that are often only useful against mentally ill, often just ramp up fear, have little use in prevention, and often only yield evidence after the fact. This would go a long way. It would also result in a lesser loss of lifestyle and rights by Americans.
Further if I had the money I would offer $20+ million for information leading to the evidence and apprehension of the perpetrators – time to make them the hunted. If I was an elected official I would publicly state that any country that aids these perpetrators would feel the full force of the United States brought to bear on them.
Americans cannot accept these sorts of acts or in anyway become ùsed to them. Doing so invites further similar acts. Don`t Tread On Me rings true these days.
I was especially saddened to read that the Senate blocked the gun control plan. I know Newtown is not the same act as Boston rationally but emotionally…I just wish it would stop.
Yes, I agree, Heather. Hard to believe.
So glad your son is safe, Wolf. Unthinkable tragedy and I am struggling to navigate through it, much like everyone else.
I understand the anxiety that comes with not knowing if your children are safe or not. I’m relieved to hear yours are safe and accounted for. I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of sadness that we, as a nation, had been victimized again on our own soil by evil that knows no remorse. While relieved they’ve identified the two who planted and detonated the bombs, I’m saddened at the senseless of such a promising young man (the 19 year old) who chose to throw away his life. The events in Watertown MA this morning are both tragic and relieving that one of the bombers will no longer be a threat. Mixed emotions.
Safe and accounted for, yes. Watching everything unfold now, about the 19-year old student, inexplicable. His own friends could have been somewhere in that Marathon crowd. Incomprehensible.
I’m so glad that your son is safe. I have to echo what you said at the very end – what went through my mind when all of it happened was the knowledge that this won’t be the last. And that just frustrates, saddens and scares me.