Paris: Perfect Hope through Wild Cruelty

Its difficult to keep a sober heart in times when we see more gravestones than horizons, and those dreadful scenes in Paris barely a week ago, has made that foul brew of tragedy more bitter. More soul crushingly dark. It would be all too easy to mould our hearts into fists of vengeance and get lost forever in a carnival of blood and anger.
Fortunately the descent into chaos is slowed by exceptional souls. People like Antoine Leiris, a Parisian who penned an open letter to the terrorists telling them that they will not win his hatred. The achingly sad letter has gone viral on social media, and gives us a glimpse hope in purest form. I have read it five times now and each time the reading forges what feels like solid tears anew. I won't copy it all here because I feel that would somehow intrude on his Facebook post but here is a snippet:

"I saw her this morning. Finally, after nights and days of waiting. She was just as beautiful as when she left on Friday night, just as beautiful as when I fell hopelessly in love over 12 years ago. Of course I am devastated by this pain, I give you this little victory, but the pain will be short-lived. I know that she will be with us every day and that we will find ourselves again in this paradise of free love to which you have no access."

And I am crying again now. Such a beautiful force to make the darkness tremble! A lone voice among the fiery bones of despair. Pure hearted spirits like Antoine Leiris are truly the lifeforce orld needs to crush evil, keepers of a diamond light that can, and will, banish send hatered howling into the void.

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Antoine Leiris. Your strength and courage brings hope with the power of a tempest. No words of mine can ever describe the love. Godspeed your healing.

When Cinema Was Ghost and Man Silenced

I don't go to the cinema often (mainly because I regard movies these days as dull as dishwater) but I did go to see United 93 in 2006. Its a film by director Paul Greengrass about the events on board United Airlines Flight 93 when terrorists hijacked it on that horrific day of september 11th, 2001. And im very glad I did watch it in the cinema because it gave me an experience I never had before (or since).
Usually cinema crowds are rowdy with folk rustling crisp packets and taking too many trips to the bathroom (go before the cinema!) but with United 93 it was oh so different. No talking during the film, it was like a library and when it finished the audience was as quiet as the grave. As the movie ended with Flight 93 crashing into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, it knocked the stuffing out of people. It was like the snap of the gallows when the trapdoor is sprung and everyones spines were jerked into the reality of what happened on 9/11.
People got out of their seats with minimal fuss, stunned into complete silence, and headed for the exits to try and leave death behind on the silver screen where it ought remain. Eventhough humans are essentially made for death, we like to regard ourselves as immortal and want horror to only exist via the clapperboard but United 93 challenged this, telling us like it is; unimaginable tragedy can happen and frequently does.
We walked the cinema aisle quite sobered by the film, immortal no longer but there was something else which felt better than immortality. We felt as one, bonded by the same frailty of life that we fear. The courageous acts depicted in United 93 of citizens fighting back against acts of terrorism had put us in our place. And I have rarely had such an awesome feeling from a film. The feeling that good will always win in the end, just like the hero riding into the sunset.