Reminder

[i_kender]

Thoughts on today:

I remember how scared I was last year when the bombs went off. Not for myself, but for my friends and loved ones. (I was fine… in fact, I wasn’t working then so I watched the whole thing unfold online and on the TV). Frantic texting to make sure everyone was ok. London was a lot smaller that day. Everyone was affected: if you didn’t know someone who was injured or killed, chances are you heard it had happened to a friend of a friend. Or someone at work. Or maybe one of your friends was in the bus just behind the one that blew up. The whistling wind of death brushing past just within earshot, around a corner, close by- not for you, not this time, but a reminder that it would come someday. A whisper of “Soon” or “Later”.

I’m very proud of how quickly London brushed off its trousers and got back to work. The Blitz spirit, stiff upper lip… these are the terms I hear scattered into the media. The way I feel is that, just for a while, for a couple of weeks, London dropped its impenetrable cloak, its unfeeling mask. The strangers on the Underground, with their alien eyes cast to the ground or to the Metro, with their I-Pod mufflers on- for a while, they met each others eyes. They were afraid, yes, but took comfort from the fear they saw reflected back. They gave comfort where they could- a smile, directions in the traffic chaos that followed the bombings (if you were here, you might remember this: the unusual sight of people walking home across town, a little dazed, a little anxious, banding together as they walked with people from work, or picking up friends on the way, or stopping in a pub…), or any of a number of simple gestures of humanity.

For a while, the city stopped. For a heartbeat, we were reminded: you’re alive. These people you see around you, they are alive, they are human, they are your kin. They fear like you fear, they suffer like you suffer… and if they’re Londoners they make up jokes about terrorists and laugh.

Today I am grateful to be alive.

Never, ever, ever let embarrassment stop you from telling the ones you are closest to that you love them, that they are important to you, that they matter.

And don’t forget: this is your life. Make it a good one.

Comments

[i_kender]

Thank you, that's nice to hear. I feel the same, and I'm sorry I'm so lousy at staying in touch. I'm like that with all my friends, I'm afraid to say!