Why I Think It’s Ok To Mourn For Paris

I am not into politics, and absolutely stray away from the social media maelstrom related to any and all current events, but the recent attacks on Paris hit home for me. I just returned from Turkey where I felt we are basically at the heart of the fight against ISIS, my family has spent loads of time in the past year all around Europe, including Paris, and my husband works tirelessly in a job that requires near constant travel through all of these places. 

I don’t want all of this to scare me, but it does. I don’t want to let terrorists cause me to live life scared, and unable, or unwilling to do the things I would normally would, but right now it feels irresponsible to not acknowledge the changes that have taken place in our world for the moment. 

I do mourn for Paris. Not more than, or without equal sadness and compassion for the other countries and families that have experienced the same loss, but it is different to me. Paris, like New York, like various other large cities in shining metropolises around the world, is worth mourning for because they are beacons of what we as humanity love, cherish, and strive to achieve and protect. They are life, culture, history, love, opportunity, and our examples of civilization at it’s finest. There are reasons millions pour into these cities year after year just to experience their wonder. They represent strength, and when they are threatened it makes all of humanity feel a little bit weakened. We don’t want to believe that our best can be affected by some of the worst in or world. 

I wish we could stop making mourning a competition like we do with everything else these days. Death is sad, period. Hate and destruction are awful no matter where they happen. At this time, when the world truly needs to stand together, for once let’s please stop trying to rip each other apart.