Sadness

Good Monday morning to all.

I’m sure that, like me, you’re still working to process what happened in Paris on Friday.  I was sitting in a café working through some e-mail between an all day meeting and a compulsory dinner meeting of my work team when I first saw the news.

Shortly thereafter, a work associate called me and that was the first thing she said, how awful this is.  The dinner meeting went on as planned, and the events from earlier in the day in France were mentioned in passing, but other than my seatmate, there was little discussion of all of this.

I finally arrived home around 10:30 Friday night, and our grandchildren were there for a sleepover.  They were both sleepy but had stayed up to greet me.  My granddaughter’s hug felt so good then.

My wife had been with the kids all afternoon and evening and had not seen any news, so she didn’t know anything about all of this until I told her.  She was just as shaken as I was.

Saturday evening we watched some extended reporting on television about what happened, the sequence of events and other related material.  And while 9/11 was a jarring event for all of us in this country and elsewhere, the attacks in Paris carry a different meaning.  The perpetrators looked their victims in the eye in many cases before carrying out their plans.  And the victims knew what was about to happen. 

I saw last night that French forces, joined by the U.S. and other countries, launched several air strikes against ISIS targets and also conducted some 150 raids throughout France.  Somehow I think we’ll be hearing that more in the coming days and weeks.

I don’t think there’s much else I can add to these thoughts, other than “vive la France.”