Did you feel this too?

~ Live & Learn

paris-terrorist-flag-blood

After great pain, a formal feeling comes—

The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs—

In the days after Paris, Emily Dickinson’s poem kept ringing through my mind as I tried to figure out what I felt—and, surprisingly, didn’t feel. I did not, as the facts emerged and the story took its full size, feel surprised. Nor did I feel swept by emotion, as I had in the past. The sentimental tweeting of that great moment in “Casablanca” when they stand to sing “La Marseillaise” left me unmoved. I didn’t feel anger, really. I felt grave, as if something huge and terrible had shifted and come closer. Did you feel this too?

[…]

I feel certain that in the days after the attack people were thinking: This isn’t going to stop.

~ Peggy Noonan, Uncertain Leadership in Perilous Times

Image: The Economist

22 thoughts on “Did you feel this too?”

  5. I felt that at first. But in the days since, some more hope has come through. Maybe this dark force can be defeated. I try not to get bogged down on the fear mongering, real fear is bad enough. Those who use this horror for political gain depress me but there have been signs that some parts of the world are pulling together to stave off the darkness and that does give me a crack of light to strain to see. For now…

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  8. The stories of the community embracing and caring for one another are really encouraging. I try and focus on how I can make a difference here in my world, and believe we all play a part in supporting each other, in times of uncertainty.

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