Imagine

Today I am not going to describe some cute story about my life. Today there will be no words about easy and delicious food. Today there’s no recipe.

Dozens of sites and seminars tell us how to run a successful blog, how to get readers. Post constantly and consistently, they say. Don’t post content that is out of character for the blog, they preach. But today I am breaking these rules. Today I can’t worry about the number of visitors. Today I feel helpless.

On Friday I left the subway after work, got into my car, and turned on the radio. The constant droning of 680 news radio station was comforting and familiar. It took me about five minutes to register what they were saying. Paris. Bombing. Attacks. Just as my mind started to awake and comprehend the situation, the radio went into a commercial break. It felt jarring listening to someone trying to cheerfully sell me a car while Paris was hurting. The commercial was over and I finally knew what happened. Again, just like many other times, I felt shocked. Shocked at the events, at how easily human life was traded in this big pointless game by so many people. I had tears in my eyes.

I remember a few months ago I was talking to my mom. She told me about some act of terror that happened in Russia. Dozens were killed. Yet, that event, just like many others, went virtually unnoticed by the twitter universe and as such was not publicized. Just like the Beirut bombing that happened a day before Paris that I did not know about. I sat helplessly at the kitchen table then and complained out loud about the world and where we were headed. My husband’s response surprised me. ” Actually,” he said, “we live in the most peaceful and prosperous time.” He proceeded to explain how with the official and organized countries and democracies there are fewer wars and casualties. How there’s less violence in families and on the streets. How capital punishment is not common anymore. How with the advances in science and medicine there’s less suffering and people live longer. For a moment I felt better.

We are caught like flies in the world wide web. The net of information connects us and makes knowledge instantaneous. A few clicks of a virtual keyboard let us know of something happening on the other end of the world. By a random stroke of luck (or not) an event may (or not) grow on twitter into an avalanche of news that enters our lives and our hearts in a matter of minutes. The wonder of the Internet – so beautiful and so painful. Stop the world, I want to get off.

I don’t pray, but if I were I would not pray for Paris. I would not even pray for the world. I’d pray for humanity. I am not going to be original and I won’t say anything profound, just… Imagine all the people living life in peace…