The Enemies of Humanity Strike Again

I had a post prepared for today but when I woke to the news about the craven terrorists in London, the joy of writing withered. All else seems trivial in the face of this new atrocity.

All day, those Londoners have been on my mind: Most of them were on the way to work, perhaps late, no doubt harried in the morning traffic. Some had made appointments for lunch, perhaps things to shop for before going home, the thousand quotidian tasks that make up our daily round.

And for some, it was all blasted in a moment. For others, there will be pain and suffering until merciful death, and for many more, deformities and deficits for the rest of their lives. The news outlets will list the numbers but they can't know the real numbers of people for whom life will never, ever be 'normal' again. The children,the parents,the brothers and sisters and husbands and wives of the people murdered today are all falling endlessly, again and again, down through the dark world of those who tumble against the rocks of sudden loss when death descends...death in the form of an ugly fist smashing what they loved.

In its long, long history London has seen many disasters, much sudden death. Unlike Spain -- which was too long under the brutal, life-leaching thumb of the Moors -- London will not cave in face of this treachery. She will do as she has always done: persevere.

As I do every day, but especially this one, I thought of my hero, Sir Winston Churchill when I saw the pictures of the mayhem and death:

"Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar."

Tonight I light a candle for the dead and dying and wounded, for those in pain, and for those whose housekey will open the door of a now-silent home. For all of them, let us pray.