Wednesday Witterings - Our Lady of Paris

Like all writers, I am in the business of creating, so when I occasionally pop my head into the real world in between bouts of working, I can often be shocked when I see destruction.

Often these days the world is put into a spin by the actions of buffoon politicians, empty headed reality TV stars, terrorists. It’s a fragile place and gets ripped apart by self-serving, thoughtless or vicious people. You kind of come to expect it; it’s a modern curse.

What you don’t expect is to go online or turn your TV on and see a cultural icon falling as the result of a terrible accident. Notre Dame de Paris has been standing – in various forms and stages of renovation – since it was first completed in the mid 13thcentury. It’s a symbol of faith for many and an example of the finest French Gothic architecture. Millions of people visit it every year, and if you’ve seen it, you always remember it. Seeing it fall in a tragic fire was heart breaking.

In the wake of the tragedy however, even just a couple of days later, we are seeing the best of humanity, with pledges of hundreds of millions of Euros, and support from as far away as Australia.

It gives you hope for mankind, when most of the time it does not represent itself well. We forget that there are many more decent people than there are malevolent ones. The noise of the malicious ones drowns out the peaceful.

My thoughts are with Paris and I hope they find a way to heal themselves and their cathedral.