Skip to main content

Paris

Yesterday morning I saw Laura. As I approached her to hug her for the events of Friday night, I realized she was in pain. As I remembered her FB post on Sunday about the loss of one of her school friends, I hugged her for her pain and said I was sorry. What else could I say. 
Friday night had already been frightenly close but seeing Laura made it all too real. 
I was impressed about the post I read from one of the survivors. As she lied down on the floor between the other corpses, her last thoughts as she waited to be next to have her 22 year old life ended were of love, rather than anger or rage of what was happenig to her. She focused on sending warm thoughts to those she loved in the hope they knew how much she cared for them. She went further to re-assure the families of those dying next to her that their last whispers were of love and not anger. It gave me hope in the future, 
I was moved by this, though at the same time I wonder if this lack of reciprocity would just make us alike them. We tried this before and we continue loosing. In fact, lives continue to be taken in different parts of the world. And even though Paris made it real for many of us - with both its proximity but also the normal day life events that got disrupted - it is plain bad in many more places. 
There is hope that those remaining believe in life and still make this world a good place to be. There is fear we may never win this long battle if we continue to fight on our terms. I would not advocate for more violence, and I fear for all the refugees that will pay a high price for these atracks, but I do wonder how it all stopped. 
Part of fighting back is to not be afraid. But one needs to wonder next time you are on a theatre hall and the eyes get moved searching for the fire exit...
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time is what makes us different

I heard what is likely to become one of my top 3 favourite quotes on a podcast on Friday. "Time is the only real democratic asset. We are all awarded the same time, it is what we do with it that distinguishes us".  Now, I recognise that most of us need to work with survive and that is not democratic throughout. But on an equal opportunity basis, this is an interesting way of putting it. For many years I did not understand why MS thought my resume was so interesting. In fact, they chased me during the entire recruitment process, even though I had no idea of moving to London or Finance. I wanted to be a consultant and stay in Lisbon forever. But traditional consultants in Portugal saw nothing in me, and MS did not let me go. When I started screening resumes and hiring people a couple of years later is when I understood why I was different. TIME.  I was truly different about what I did with my time. Not necessarily the basics - choice of degree or anything. But really ...
1 comment
Read more

Haunted by journaling

Journaling is haunting me. In different places, posts, blogs, podcasts, workshops or books, I get brainwashed by the wonders of journaling, what it can do for my morning as part of a morning ritual of meditation. For many years, I thought if only I would journal, I would have a blog full of life, ideas that never end and a calm relaxed life, with my thoughts off my head every day, not haunting me for fear of being forgotten. I love a good empty page, be it on a book or a screen. To be fair, I even do better on a screen shining back with words filling faster than my hands think they can type and my eyes semi-shut to the wonders that can come by. I don't know what the end game is, I like it to go free. But I don't journal. I can't make up my mind if I want to give it a proper go or not, I don't like the feeling at "failing" some of these initiatives, I don't have much to say every day though I have random thoughts during the day that I which could be reco...
Post a Comment
Read more

London FintechWeek - Day 1 Reflections

Today, I attended the day 1 of the London Fintech Week. It is exciting to have the opportunity to be part of such an event - personally and professionally.  I have done my formal work debrief so now want to focus on some reflections.  The first session that called my attention was  ‘Is London still the world’s financial center?’.  by Nick Murray-Leslie. The speaker was clearly making a case for it but the more he provided the arguments for it, the gloomier I got about the prospects. Talent is key - and the environment is not prone to it as Brexit talks progress. And no, it is not all about Brexit but it certainly does not bode well for people wanting to hire across Europe and for talent looking for exciting opportunities. Moreover, in general terms and outside Brexit, I find that the world will be much less about where you are but rather about where you are connected. In a not so distant future it may not matter if we are based in London or Rome to do many of t...
1 comment
Read more