Le prochain jour

November 14, 2015

by apaparis

I haven’t done much today. I stayed inside (as per President Hollande’s recommendation), read, watched TV, bought groceries, and often refreshed the BBC Live Update report online. Yet by 7pm, I am exhausted.

I slept very little last night due to the siren noise that continued without interruption until about 8am when all became quiet. But mostly I’m exhausted from death tolls, which make my heart drop each time I see them. I’m exhausted from continuous breaking news. I’m exhausted from the never-ceasing tragedy that I force myself to read, watch, and refresh on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, everything. I’m just exhausted. I know that doesn’t even remotely compare to the exhausted, despair and grief others in Paris are feeling right now, and my heart and my tears are with them.

I did go outside today, as I mentioned I had to get food for dinner this evening. As nearly all restaurants and food establishments are closed today, I took a trip to the grocery store in my quiet little neighborhood in the 12th. Despite all that happened, people still were out for their Saturday strolls in the park, grocery shopping, chatting on the sidewalks and faithfully walking their little dogs as usual.

The greatest difference is everyone is a bit quieter and everyone smiles at each other a bit more.

We are hearing now of Syrian and Egyptian passports, involvement from a jihadist group, possibly the Islamic State. We are getting survivor stories, victim stories, and the sites of each attack are filling with flowers and candles. People on social media far away from all of this are already getting upset about xenophobia, Islamophobia, any other kind of phobia they want to get upset about. I even saw a great number of people on Twitter getting a little too passionate about what Tweet Donald Trump sent out after the attacks (for future reference, that’s not what anyone needs to get passionate about on a day like this). But this really isn’t the time to point fingers at anyone on either side, whether or not you think you’re politically correct.

All anyone needs to do is send Paris your thoughts, your love, your prayers and just hope that those responsible will be identified and found. Vive la France.