The Best Day Gone Tragic
At the Toastmaster’s meeting yesterday, one of the speakers talked about his experience at the Boston Marathon the previous day. He has been volunteering for 12 years at the elite refreshment station about 6 miles from the finish.
“It was a beautiful morning.” He said. There were so many children, which is not often the case because of the often cold weather. The temperature was in the 40s. There was a lot of laughter and everything seemed to be going so smoothly. A marathon coordinator from another state had been onsite to learn from them, giving them a boost of morale as they worked. It was near jubilant. It was the best Marathon day.
He left long before the end of the race and learned of the tragic circumstances in disbelief. Over and over he heard the screams and cries of those on the scene pictured on the news. Every hour the sounds attempted to drown out the memory of the morning full of pleasant, even joyful noises of the crowd. He also mentioned that at the beginning of the race there are physically impaired athletes, mostly in wheel chairs, that start the race. These are brave strong people. Many are veterans with great honor. He described it as a truly inspiring site. Then, as the television reviewed the same area full of wheelchairs, they were rushing injured people through the smoke and debris. It was a tragic turn.
This microcosm has always had a national, even international stage. The Boston Marathon is a tradition of huge proportions. Few people have no idea what it is. Likely few people know how immense it really is. I cannot imagine the scope. I see the television coverage each year and maybe read an article or hear a story from a friend that has been and I live less than 40 miles from the event. The attack seems senseless and utterly ridiculous. From a sane perspective, to hurt and kill people is unconscionable. It is so illogical, especially to do it anonymously, randomly and for no benefit to anyone. Even if you try to go outside of yourself and consider some cause, some insane reason for attacking others, this may strike fear in some people, but as it happened during a lighter traffic and crowd time and not concurrent or even in close succession, it could have been much more destructive. I don’t mean to minimize the suffering of the injured, survivors of the lost or the millions of residents, friends and acquaintances involved. As an act of terror and threat of random violence, it worked, but only to a degree. Many people are adamant that they will run again next year.
We may eventually know the reason and find those responsible. For now, what is the take away? First, there are far too many people making knee jerk comments about who and why, blaming people and groups and diminishing a caring response by making accusations of all sorts without proof. Secondly, it is absolutely disgraceful to use the situation to take the stage with nothing to say. Merely saying EMS is doing a good job or that other divisions of government or service is good in small bites, not worthy of their own press conferences with no valuable information. People must respond, but emotional reactions are not generally helpful.
At a twenty thousand foot view, this is another warning, another wake up call. You know not the hour, nor the day, but that your life may change forever or it may be taken from you. At some point, each of us will pass from this earth. Treasure your time and consider how short life really is. Ask yourself if you are living true to your core values. Ask yourself if you are peaceful with the inevitable. Ask yourself what will be after you leave this earth. Ask what assurances you have.
Are you at peace?