“Heartless” is the word that comes to mind to describe the character of the person or persons who set off the bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
The country, indeed the world, looked on as the video of the bombs going off was played over and over (probably just as the bomber hoped).
Yet my attention and that of many other viewers was not so much on the bomber, but rather on the victims, the survivors and especially the first responders. Such an amazing collective response: immediately bystanders helped to apply tourniquets which saved lives, the emergency people responded quickly and effectively and the hospitals and their medical experts also of course contributed professionally and mightily.
Then we saw such beautiful tributes as Yankee fans singing “Sweet Caroline” in honor of Boston, and then the crowd at a Bruins game taking over for the soloist who had just started singing the national anthem, and the assembled fans singing it loud, on pitch and together the rest of the way.
Perhaps the perpetrator(s) of this crime sought to sow fear and cowardice. If their actions were “heartless” then, I venture to say, the response of the people was “heartful” – coming together with love and compassion, feeling their deep connection, even though in “normal” life, they might be adversaries.
This is just the response we saw in NYC on September 11, 2001. People trapped in the World Trade Center did not spend their last living moments calling their broker, but rather telling their loved ones how much they cared about them. And the hundreds of first responders were not cowed by the terrorists’ actions, as perhaps Al Queda had expected, but rather, brought together by a love for country and their fellow man, they exhibited great courage and caring.
Going back even further to Princess Diana’s tragic death, we saw the outpouring then of love from millions of people around the globe.
While our “normal” state seems to be to live our own little separate lives – and thus in competition, we are sometimes jarred by events like these into seeing our true reality as fellow human beings, and experiencing our deep interconnection.
Maybe it’s finally time to make that feeling a constant state, where we are conscious of Heart and its powerful force – and we live from the energy and beliefs of Heart.
What do you think?