Lights

I was going to post about my NaNo word count, but then I saw the news about Paris. The situation is still unfolding as I write this, but it looks beyond terrible.  I think perhaps the most heartbreaking thing I read was a dispatch from a Parisian bookshop, which ended with the words, “The lights of Notre Dame have been turned off, which never happens at this time of night.”

This struck me, hard. Perhaps it’s because one of my favorite films is the deeply moving Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in which the Cathedral plays a significant role. Perhaps it’s because of the resemblance to the iconic words of Edward Grey on August 3rd, 1914, on the eve of World War One: ““The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time.”  I don’t know. But it struck me. This is a dark day for Paris, and the world.

But where there is darkness, there is always, still, light.