The events of last week weigh on my heart. So many dead. So many injured. So much fear and anger. I’ve gone back and forth about writing something here, but the video below decided me.
Le Petit Journal‘s interview with this boy and his father brightened my day…well, after it made me cry a bit. You see, I hadn’t really been able to process all that had happened. Shootings and explosions in Paris, car bombings in Beirut, and so many others…Then there was all the backlash. Normally good, kind people calling for U.S. soldiers to go in there and “slit their throats”, calls to deny aid to refugees hoping to escape the very kind of people committing these atrocities, and the weight got heavier.
The boy’s fear lives in me. “They might have guns, but we have flowers,” the boy’s father said. He’s right, the bad guys might have bombs and guns, but those flowers and candles show that love is stronger. Even after all the death and destruction, love prevails. Citizens of Paris still stand up with signs that declare they are “Not Afraid”. Government officials may want to deny Syrian refugees asylum, but citizen’s voices across social media shout a different message. The world is still a dark and dangerous place, but not completely.
“Flowers and candles are here to protect us,” just as the little boy says. They remind us of those taken in these tragedies, inspire us to let go of at least a little fear, and, along with a father comforting his son, brighten the world a little. My heart needed reminding.
‘Til next time,
Jessica
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