Jason, my husband, generously offered to watch the baby for a few minutes this afternoon while I took a break from parenting. I fixed myself an iced coffee with plenty of cream, cuddled up under a blanket and tapped open the Twitter app on my iPhone.
And there it was all over my Home page. News about the Boston Marathon explosions. I was floored. First because I am human, but also because I am a runner. A long distance runner at that.
I have the calluses on my feet to prove it. Hardened skin etched over miles of asphalt, mud, dirt and cement. I wear sun sprinkles on my cheeks, tan lines on my legs. I know my way around town only from running. People ask me, “Where do you run?”
“All over,” I say. All over.
I know what it takes to show up at the start line. It takes heart, literally and figuratively. I know what it feels like to finish. I’ve done it so many times.
And even though I haven’t run the Boston Marathon, I KNOW. I understand in the way every runner whose been around the block a few hundred thousand times KNOWS. It’s not just any race. It’s THE race. It’s the moderately-competitive-recreational-runner’s crowning achievement. Once you’ve qualified for BOSTON, you’ve made it. It’s official. You’re the real deal.
Which is one of the (many) reasons why today was just so sad. It was an attack on the notion that with hard work comes great reward. On the idea that all we must do to experience joy and triumph is endure the pain. It was an attack on hope.
And now our nation is grieving. Some the very poignant and incomprehensibly real grief of loss, I’m sure. Be it life or limb. Some are grappling with a renewed sense of insecurity and lack of control. Are we ever safe? Are our children ever safe? This was my thought as I watched my baby running around in the back yard, equally thrilled with the bird perched on our fence and A ROCK. She and my husband will be waiting for me at the finish line of my next race a month from now.
And so we all want to know WHY. Why would anyone take away our lives, our limbs, our security and our hope?
The more I think about that question, the more I think there can only be one answer. I think you must have to lose hope before you can take hope. I think you probably have to feel profoundly hurt before you can so profoundly hurt another. And all this pain and sadness and loss of hope are just too much for me to bear. So I am prepared to do the only thing I believe is capable of breaking this cycle.
I forgive you, Boston Marathon Bomber. We are all more than our most terrible deeds. I offer you my love, so that it may heal your hurt and you can join with the rest of us again – in hope.
Just beautiful. I’m holding on to hope and love.
Thank you 🙂 I’m so glad you’re carrying love and hope with you too.
Beautiful post, Laura. And very admirable.
Thanks Ashley. I’m angry about it too.
I know. I keep thinking of the two marathons I ran– the people waiting for me at the finish line, my exhaustion and elation. It’s incomprehensible.
It is. I keep thinking that I just can’t imagine the trauma and suffering the runners experienced / are experiencing. And then I think it’s probably for the best that I can’t imagine it because I think it would be too much for me to handle.
Thank you for posting this. I really appreciate it.
Thank you for stopping by. 🙂
Thanks for this. As a long distance runner also, I am just shattered by what happened yesterday. I have a race in two weeks and I know I will be thinking about all the Boston marathoners, those who finished and those who never did, as I run my miles.
I think we’ll all be running in honor of Boston for awhile. Thanks for dedicating your hard work to those affected. Good luck at the race!
Your response is the only remedy and true response, forgiveness. Thank you.
Love you, Mom
Thanks Mom. I think you’re responsible for teaching me forgiveness.
Wow Laura, beautiful. Thank you.
Thank you. 🙂
Forgiveness…a grace born of tragedy.
You are a wise woman, Laura.
Not anon – love from Aunt Margaret
I don’t really feel very wise… But thank you for the beautiful comment and compliment Aunt Margaret. 🙂
i reply as a father, husband,undertaker, marathoner, and ironman. I have also read you from when the baby came along. I do not comment often but, well….I would think some of this warm fuzzy love would be better spent on the famlies of the dead. This was an attack…if your husband and little Ruby was there,waiting for you, the killers would have wanted them dead too.Ending cycles, turn the other cheeck even, i can understand. Love? Could be you are a better person than me…many are..could be I have seen more than you.
Thank you for your comment. I felt very nervous posting this because I expected to see a lot of this type of response. Because I get it. I totally understand where you’re coming from.
Let me clarify that I also have much love for everyone affected, both directly and indirectly. Let me also add that I’m sure I would not be feeling love or forgiveness if any of my family had been hurt. I would be feeling angry. (I actually do feel quite angry now too.) And I certainly wouldn’t expect those affected to feel love or forgiveness. There’s not enough room for that after grief.
I think it’s because of my position – close enough, yet far enough away – from the attack that I’m able to have this perspective. I assure you it’s not because I’m a better person. And you may very well be right that my perspective would change if I saw what you have seen. Yet here I am, where I am in this unique position. I feel like because I am able to offer forgiveness and, yes, love, I must.
Beautifully written.
Thanks man. 🙂
You wrote exactly what I felt and was too afraid to say. Thank you for this perspective.