This has been a numbing month.
Work is busy. My son had a stomach virus. A friend moved in with us from Indianapolis.
And then it was Patriots Day.
Being a Massachusetts native, Patriots Day was always a day met with enjoyment – a way to get out of school, watch the Red Sox game that started in the morning, and catch the winners of the Marathon as soon as the Sox game wrapped up. It was a celebration – a day used for remembering Massachusetts importance in the founding of our country, in the pursuit of liberty and democracy.
Now that I live in Florida, I don’t celebrate Patriots Day. Rather than dates celebrating the democratic spirit of our country, we get strawberry festivals and hurricane days. Rather than tuning into NESN to catch the Sox game, we get the Rays. Rather than celebrating, I sit, 1100 miles removed, and reminisce about when I lived in Fall River.
April 15th 2013, my worlds collided, and in a way, shattered.
At roughly 4PM, two bombs were detonated at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. In the aftermath, my city – a place I still identify as home – is in chaos. At least 100 people are injured. 2 are dead – one of which was an 8 year old boy. People are scattered, fleeing on a day that should instead be celebrated as one of pure joy and accomplishment.
Despite all of this, I am hopeful. The videos of the bombings, despite people fleeing in terror, showed waves of people running to aide those that had fallen. Police and rescue workers responded instantaneously, helping those that were in need. It made me proud to live in a country so uniquely designed to immediately pitch in and help out. We are Americans, and in times of need, we do what we need to in order to help our fellow countrymen.
There has been sentiment amongst people I know that they wish that Captain America and Superman were real, following the terror attacks in Boston. My friend Elliot Serrano said it best – “They are. In each of us.”
As I am a nerd, I leave you with one final thought. There are oaths that members of various Lantern Corps recite upon charging their rings in the Green Lantern mythos. My favorite, and one that is truly appropriate in current circumstance, is from the Blue Lantern Corps – the symbols of Hope in a chaotic universe.
In raging day
In fearful night
With strong hearts full
Our souls ignite
When all seems lost in the war of light
Look to the stars
For Hope burns bright
~Jay
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