boston bombing
HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN TO A CHILD THAT WAS INURED IN A BOMBING THAT ITS OKAY TO GO BACK OUT AND PLAY
As I walked down Boylston Street today in Boston, I came to the site where the bombs went off during the Boston Marathon of 2013. And as tragic as that event was, something caught my eye that made me stop in my tracks as my knees began to weaken. An 8-year old boy in a wheelchair was sitting in front of the store that was still under repair from the bombing last week. This child was injured in the blast and his caretakers were reintroducing him back into society. He had two Trauma workers that were wearing Trauma logo'd jackets and were pointing to different places on the sidewalk. The little boy was listening but he seemed confused. It was heart wrenching to watch. I think of my own 18-month old son and how innocent he is. How would I ever begin to explain what happened in a way that he would ever be able to relax in a crowd ever again?
Those terrorists not only took the lives of citizens, and the legs from others. They also took the innocence from children who no longer get to grow up with the kind of naiveness that makes being a child so much fun. The scars you can see are bad enough. The scars we'll never see are even more sinister.
I didn't want to take the little kid's picture. I'm not that kind of a blogger or guy. I simply took a picture of ground zero as a reminder that the world we live in is, indeed, fragile. Yes, Bostonians are resilient and yes, life goes on. But the scars will last. And they are reminders that we must make an effort to live harmoniously. It's not a given. We have to make it. We have to create it. We have to feed it. And we have to guard it.
Like that little boy, Boston is a little less innocent than it was one week ago. And now, we have to get up, brush ourselves off, hug each other, and do what we can to see that love outsmarts hate.
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