Don’t you just hate it when something really terrible happens, and aside from the obvious agony, empathy and grief from all those vested, it feels like you can’t really post anything to the internet without feeling like an insensitive asshole? It’s like I want to try and inevitably post things that amuse me, or might amuse others, but you just know everything will fall on deaf ears because something major and tragic has occurred, and nobody’s paying attention to anything but that.
Sounds trite sure, but it’s still one of the things that swirls around in my head at times like this. Doesn’t mean that the actual recent events are no less important.
It’s absolutely tragic and horrific to hear about the terrorist attack in Paris. It got me thinking about how it seems like there’s a very sophomoric logic behind the dates in which these massive incidents occur, like how September 11th was supposedly planned because Americans dial 9-11 in an emergency, and how to some degree, it shouldn’t feel like that much of a surprise that a cowardly assault on the people of Paris occurred on Friday the 13th.
I don’t know where to direct my disappointment when it comes to stories like this; it’s easy to point fingers at the Middle East as a whole, but that’s logically irresponsible, because extremists are called such for a reason, although it certainly can’t apply to everyone solely based on similar nationalities. Then there’s a part of me that condemns the concept of religion, because so much of these terrible things seem to always happen in the name of religion, and how it’s subsequently sad that people, at the basest level, simply can’t mind their own fucking business and accept that there are people who think differently, and the answer is not to kill them, but to leave them be perhaps.
Not lost on me is the fact that I was in Paris two weeks prior to these events, and as someone who looked at his share of maps of Paris, planning out places to see and restaurants to dine at, and trying to study the Metro lines, it is most certainly frightening to see on a map where these attacks were launched. Where my girlfriend and I ate falafels and crepes on our last night in Paris, was merely three blocks away from where several gunmen open fire at the attendance of a rock concert, killing 87 people.
I’m not saying that we narrowly escaped a very bad situation, since it was two weeks and not two days, but it does put into perspective how when I was there, I was feeling pleasant and in love and enjoying my time, eating food, and thinking nothing bad could happen, and then hearing stories about how a bunch of fucking terrorists went about their usual tactic of surprising civilians with deadly weapons.
Ultimately, it just makes me feel like the world is just a terrible place. If it’s not people ruining the lives of other people in the name of religion, it’s people ruining the lives of other people in the name of money and greed, and if not that, people are just ruining lives for some other stupid reason. It makes me want to close up my own walls and shut everyone out, because sometimes the incessant chatter of everyone around is too conflicting, too overwhelming, and too starved for attention.
It’s times like this when I just want to hide out and wait for everything to calm down again, so I can try and enjoy my own little unsubstantial life in relative peace and hope I’m not stepping on too many toes in the process.
I most certainly feel bad for Paris, but I also feel bad for the rest of the world, because there are some truly horrible people out there, and they’re always going to be doing horrible things like this, no matter how much we wish they wouldn’t, and it makes the world an awful place.
