I avoid talking about current events in writing. It's hard to be original.
But this isn't about being original: This is a necessary thank you. I live 100 feet from the border between Somerville and Cambridge, Mass., and I live about five blocks from Norfolk St., where one or both of the Tsarnaev brothers lived, apparently. In other words, it happened in my backyard.
photo by Ruben Baston under cc
I have a lot to be thankful for, and I don't think of the thanks as being to any vague concept of universal goodwill shining down on us, but to the police officers, FBI agents, firefighters, and the thousands that put their lives in danger. It's easy to forget that the people who perform manhunts and get shot at are not an undifferentiated mass of people in blue uniforms and suits, but thousands of individuals who would like to continue existing on Earth as much as I do, but do jobs that threaten to end that. I try to remember it.
So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
