Festival of flowers – Henri Matisse – Nice – 1923

I didn’t want to write right away after Nice.  What to say?  I thought it was critical to keep quiet.  To cry and commune without spreading greater sorrow.

I remember something my dad told me when I announced to him that my ex-husband and I were splitting:  he said you are both smart people and I count on you both to manage it intelligently but don’t forget that when feelings are involved, strong deep feelings, it overshadows intelligence.  This sentence stayed with me so many times.  So this time I did not watch television, no images, I protected myself.  It helped me not to build up my fear.  What’s the point?  It only plays into their game.

I arrived at some sort of certainty that there was nothing I could do in the near future.  Because it will happen again, because you can die at a terrace, at a concert, at the university, in a nightclub, on a promenade, here or elsewhere… so, so we might as well LIVE!  And then I remembered those factual things and all the testimonies absolutely stunning in their humanity.And righteously, I told myself, humanity is immense and nothing should deter us from it, neither fear, neither the disgust inspired by those who in this case lost all their humanity.

Hundreds of people die in Istanbul, Brussels, Nice or Orlando… and we are millions around the world to mourn and cry for them… it’s really great, very grand.  And this should never change.  They can’t do anything against that.  Let’s continue to cherish humanity.  To “spread” Love

The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.

– Paul Coelho