Monday, April 15, 2013 started as an absolutely perfect day in Boston. But as Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen wrote last week, “In an instant, a perfect day had morphed into something viscerally evil.”
Last Monday – my life, our lives, were forever changed. Bombs went off at the Boston Marathon and ever since, I’ve carried with me a fear and awareness that previously never crossed my mind. I hear a loud bang and assume the worst. I see a bag lying on the ground and can’t help but wonder why it’s there.
Unimaginable events like last Monday’s will have that effect. But in time, it too shall pass. Just like the fear we all felt after 9/11, Columbine, or Virginia Tech. For those of us not directly effected – those of us on the outside looking in – life moves on and while we’ll never forget, a sense of normalcy will return.
I don’t know about you, but I find myself distracted this morning. My mind wandering and wondering if it’s okay to get back to normal. Battling the inner demons that want me to question humanity and think the worst about our country.
Truth be told, this is a punch in our collective gut. But now is a time that demands endurance more than ever. We take this punch, we stagger, we feel pain – we feel helpless – we feel anger, but we get back up.
I’m a marathon runner, and if there’s any irony in all of this, it’s that the attacked occurred during a marathon. Marathon-runners live and breathe endurance. And what we need right now is to endure.
Today, despite the bombs, despite my fear, and despite my anger, I will run. This weekend I will run my fourth marathon. I’ll be a little more cautious and a little more aware, but I will endure. We will endure.
Today, as we return to our regularly schedule program – our regularly schedule lives, let us honor the fallen and celebrate the heroism of so many.
In our moments of great darkness, what we’ve seen in the past week is that these moments bring about our greatest strengths. They pull us together and they certainly put our lives into perspective. But in our moments of greatest darkness, we discover the collective enduring light that exists within us all. The drive to come together. The drive to do good. The drive to love. The drive to endure.
As Patton Oswalt of all people so aptly put,
“When you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.”