Being a military family, my husband constantly tells me how much evil exists in the world. He says most people are naive and fail to accept reality. I tell him he's wrong, that people just choose to see the good in every situation. As I am typing this, I suddenly realise he's right, that to an extent we ARE all naive.
When I first learnt of the Boston explosions, I tried to rationalise saying perhaps it was a troubled teen who accidentally set off firecrackers? My husband shook his head and called me "blonde". Look at the situation he said, it's clearly terrorism.
"Oh did they officially declare that?" I asked.
"Just look at the facts- multiple detonations, multiple locations, mass carnage." He replied.
Of course, being a seasoned veteran it's easy for him to read these kind of situations. Those who deal with world events on a daily basis exist in a different reality to the rest of us. To them, we look like pawns who walk through life in a merry little bubble. It's not our fault we view the world in rose tint glasses, we just simply do not have the same access to information. Surprisingly, it is also we, the ordinary folks who have this immense influence over how the world is run. The power of the individual was none more present than during the aftermath of the Boston bombings. Emergency and police departments took to social media to help spread their messages. Tell everyone we need more blood they tweeted, tell everyone to steer clear of the blast zone, tell everyone our blood supply is at full capacity but will need more donations next week...
We as a nation are a compassionate bunch. Our biggest fear and disbelief is that there are people out there who's sole purpose is to hurt us. It's something we often fail to comprehend and as a result are quick to blame ourselves for their selfish acts. Were we not nice enough? Did we offend them? Could we have done something different?
It is exactly this compassion and kind heartedness that evil doers take advantage of, it also happens to be the very thing that differentiates us.
If there is anything we can take away from the Boston bombings, it's that this country refuses to be pushed around. Sure you can try to wreak havoc but it will only unite us stronger. Darkness may have descended for a few hours on Monday but once the smoke cleared it was a scene of hope, faith and love. People came together from all walks of life to help out in any way they could. It's clear that humanity isn't lost, some people just choose the wrong path.
My husband may be right, there is a lot more evil in this world than we care to admit, but I'm going to continue believing in the good not because I'm naive, but because that's who I am. We cannot let any amount of terrorism or fear change our identity.
Thank you for reading. I know this space is usually reserved for frivolities, but posting on anything else this week just seemed insignificant. We will be back to our regular features next week.
