Keep Calm and Carry On

Hello, dear readers. I was about to post about the upcoming movie adaptation of Catching Fire this afternoon when a breaking news report came in about the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Any act of terrorism (be it foreign or domestic, organized or lone wolf) or tragedy gives me pause, but one so very close to home rattled me quite a bit.

All of my friends in Boston and at the race are fine. I am lucky. I hope all of my readers are as lucky and are safe at home with those they love. My thoughts are with those who are not so lucky or find themselves facing a long road home, whether due to the T, grounded flights, or injuries.

However, as frightening and unnerving as today’s events may have been, it was not the screaming or the blood or the fire that caught my attention.

It was all the people immediately running towards the explosions. It was the bystanders and security and event staff immediately springing into action and coming to people’s aid. It was the runners who ran right to the hospital to donate blood. It was the combat veterans at nearby colleges who arrived to assist however they could. It was the average people in Boston taking stranded marathoners into their homes.

As the wise and beloved Mr. Rogers once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'” I thought of this quote immediately as the events were unfolding.

Keep Calm and Carry On may be a meme that has been done to death, but it, too, resonated with me today. Today is what that quote is about. It comes from a time of war and uncertainty, when civilians lived in fear of bombings. It is a mantra of perseverance, of those who keep going and try to keep life as normal as possible, of those who look out for each other and get through. And that’s what we’ll do.

Take care of yourselves, readers. Take care of each other. To the Bostonians out there, and anyone else effected: you may have run alone, but we all stand with you. Waes hael.