The criminal part of it has been resolved, perhaps. As with most events such as this, it is almost impossible to comprehend the impact it has had on the injured, their families, the other spectators and, essentially, the world in general. Once again, we are starkly reminded of how instantaneously the darkness can descend over the commonplace and joyful.
I am always on the lookout for something to write about here and the bombings fairly screamed at me. I hesitated, though, and I'm not sure why. Very quickly, there was a plethora of very eloquent essays and blogs on the internet and in the papers and it just didn't seem as though I had much to add.
I couldn't even really decide which of my two blogs I would use, when and if the time came. My other blog, "Strides", is dedicated to running and it seemed to make some sense to post it there. On the other hand, the bombings didn't seem to have been aimed at running, per se, they seemed to be aimed more simply at a large gathering of people where there was also a strong media presence.
Make no mistake, though, the bombings affected runners.
Runners are a strongly linked community and it was difficult not to feel targeted. It was also hard not to wonder why us? As much as running can be a social event it is essentially a solitary form of endeavour, impacting only the participant so why on earth would anyone want to disrupt that?
What we have ended up doing is trying to make sense out of the senseless and random. We wonder what we should do, or could have done, differently.
I'm sure some runners may never enter a similar event again. I also suspect that somewhere there is a runner who has stopped running.
My sense, though, is that in most cases the opposite has happened. I suspect that runners are now even more resolved to continue running. I wouldn't even be surprised if someone actually took up running, inspired by something they might have seen or a story they might have heard of from last week in Boston.
I ran in a 5K race this past weekend in Uxbridge, Ontario. Before the event started, there was a singing of the national anthem. Due to the events in Boston, it was decided to sing the American national anthem as well. It was an emotional few moments, as you can imagine, and you could sense the solidarity that existed. During the awards ceremony, the emcee asked if there was anyone there who had actually run in the Marathon in Boston. One young lady had been there, had finished the race and was in her hotel room when the bombs went off. She echoed the general chaos and horror of that day and received a huge ovation from the people gathered there. Nowhere did I perceive any indication that the events in Boston had dampened any runner's resolve.
As I rooted around the internet last week, looking for coverage from Boston, I ran into streams of discussions all over the place as to who was responsible, how they should be punished and how this reflected on our place in the world.
There was much anger and much placing of blame. Al Qaeda was fingered. The U.S. government was accused of conspiracy. People made outrageous statements, in their zeal, and then were angrily denounced by others. There was racism and name-calling. The point was made by some that there are parts of the world where incidents like this are a daily occurrence and that results are quite often much worse. Some people did not want to be reminded of this. It was not hard to see the vitriol being passed around and realize how much latent anger there is in the world, just waiting to be vented. At times, the anger demonstrated by people talking about the bombings was almost as scary as the bombings themselves.
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| These will go on. |
More than anything, though, people pulled together. Those that died, heart-breakingly, were all young with bright futures. They, along with the wounded and maimed, will all have special places in our hearts and minds. Many of us will think of Boston every time we run. Some of us will run as respite from the memory.
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