Here we are
again. A stunned nation, mourning innocent lost, unnecessarily wounded, the
stripping of our freedom to gather and safely go about our business. The images
have become sadly familiar and this fact, too, offends deeply.
So many
thoughts have been going through my mind since hearing the news from Boston yesterday. I am a little familiar
with the running community, not because I run but because my brother does. Paul
has done several marathons. One of the things he loves about them is the
running community. As he says, “runners are just good people.” An assessment
from someone who would know.
People run
for all sorts of reasons. Some run for their health. Others to raise funds for
research. Or because someone they love runs. Or simply because they find joy in
running. Another because they are good at it. For every one of those 23,000
runners making their way along the course yesterday, there is an engaging
story.
But beyond
the runners is the community of support around them. Family and friends turn
out to cheer their runner, to replenish water, to feed them “goo.”
The
atmosphere is festive, celebratory. People run around in tutus, rabbit
costumes, as Elvis. I’ve seen multiple Dolly Partons run down the road during
the annual marathon in Nashville . It isn’t easy to run 26 miles with
balloons for breasts.
And that is
the point, isn’t it? The thing about acts of “terror” is that they have a vast
ripple effect. “It could happen here,” we think as we look at our children. We
close in, we look with suspicion, we pass unwieldy, expensive, and ineffective
laws. We become smaller.
I long to
see us collectively defy fear-driven behavior with love-driven choices.
Celebrate community. Participate with joy. Choose kindness toward neighbor.
This is the response to acts of such senseless violence which defy everything
these acts are meant to provoke. Choose senseless kindness. Choose senseless
joy. Acts such as these lead to real freedom and a nurturing of the kind of
community worthy of the Boston marathon.