Amid all of yesterday's tragic news, I'm happy to report that the nieces successfully made it to Paris and back. I have no idea what they did there because I haven't had a chance to talk to them yet -- they got home about 11:30 last night. I got up briefly to help them get in -- they were having trouble with the door lock -- but we didn't talk at all because I knew they were probably exhausted. We'll catch up this evening!
So, yeah -- Manchester. I read the news right after posting yesterday morning, and now I see we know who committed this atrocity. Every time something like this happens I wait for the identity of the perpetrator to be revealed, along with some clues about what could possibly have been going on in his (and it's always a his) mind. And then we get the identity, but no clues at all. That mind is always left without illumination, a black hole of evil intent, impossible to understand.
I mean, ISIS sends out its claims of responsibility, its word salads of "caliphate" and "crusader" and other terms better left behind in history books about the middle ages. But they don't help us understand either. That's just some organization imposing its worldview on a barbaric act.
I always wind up concluding that in addition to fanaticism, there's a degree of mental illness at work in incidents like this. Because what else could explain them but utter madness?
As I walked home from work yesterday evening I passed the apartment building above, Elgar House. I love our human tendency to celebrate beauty and genius. Even an act as simple as naming an apartment building after a famous composer shows our ability to create, and to recognize remarkable creations. It's interesting that our human species can be both so inspired, and so deluded.
Anyway, I have no answers. I'm not sure there are any.
I'm just going to keep inhabiting my little corner of the world, and enjoying my sunny days, and watching out for my loved ones as best I can. Because that's all I can do, isn't it?
Yes. I guess that's about as much as anybody can do apart from supporting the right politicians or joining the right pressure groups and becoming active within them. But you need lots of energy for that. I would rather sit on a rock on the nearby moors, watching the sun setting over Manchester.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the nieces took themselves French lovers whilst in Paris.
Well, yes, that's true -- and I do always vote and try to support the right politicians and political causes and organizations. I'm not sure the nieces had time for lovers, but who knows?!
ReplyDeleteYou are right. We do what we can and raging doesn't accomplish much, if anything. Let us put our bit of love into the world and concentrate on that.
ReplyDeleteActs of terror are unexplainable. We may have views but to be so fanatical and want to impose another system on others doesn't make sense. However, they're not the first ones to commit such madness.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how blowing up a bunch of people will cause them to see the error of their ways. but humans do tend to want to force their ideology on everyone else. that's how christianity spread across the globe...kill 'em or convert 'em. I've always been anti-social. Now I'm becoming a hermit.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll just sit & stare at that last picture of Olga. It's very soothing...
ReplyDeleteI watched the news last night and listened to two experts on how people get radicalized and the only thing they really know is methods used to recruit people, they don't really understand how the person begins to believe that killing innocent people is somehow an answer. As you said, the problem is we know their names and a little about their backgrounds but, we don't know what goes on inside their head.
ReplyDeleteElgar House looks like a place I could live. I like the look of it (and the name). I also like that photo of Olga. She has a huge space to run and play in that photo.
That's a good plan. Glad the nieces returned safely from their Paris adventure. I, too, look for clues to understanding, and I, too, am always frustrated, because as you say, there is no understanding these acts, at least not to my mind. A black hole of evil intent. Yes, that.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that always, always gets me is how we don't react to these same horrors in parts of the world where they are a daily occurrence.
ReplyDeleteHeck, we don't even react to the statistics on lives lost on highways although the toll is high (roughly 100 per day in the U.S.). I guess it hits harder when it's closer to where we live, when it's in such contrast to our usual circumstances. Maybe it's a kind of survival reflex.
I don't know. I don't know. And I'm weary of trying to figure it out.