The Christmas market is 5 min walk from our home and I usually go through on my way to the park where I run. Since I run early in the mornings, the stalls are closed when I go through. I haven't felt able to go by there since the attack, so took a different route for my run today. It also didn't feel appropriate to be in running gear somewhere where people had so recently been killed and injured in such an ugly manner.
It was definitely good to run again. Thank goodness for running, it is so healing. All of these terror attacks that blight our world are sad but this one was very close to home for us. We walk through there mist days and my daughter had been there on Monday just an hour before it happened so she is very shaken and scared.
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boptillyoudrop49
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That is a horror and a sadness I have thankfully not known. Your city has been on our minds across the pond, I hope you are doing okay. What a senseless and incompressible act. I'm glad you found some comfort in a run, I hope it continues to give you some peace. I will be thinking of you on my next run. Does your daughter have an outlet to help her through this?
We had feared we were due for something like this but it is a shock when you realise it could very easily have been you, someone from your family, a neighbour or friend. I thought it was a bit callous to head out for a run but it definitely did help and I took a detour to avoid the site of the attack although I did go by later in the day to light a candle and say a prayer. I know it always looks a bit fruitless when we do this kind of thing but I thought maybe someone who lost a loved one might see it and think someone cared.
With my daughter I am doing homely, cosy things like baking and singing carols. She and her friends are all very scared though.
No, not callous but a good coping mechanism. Glad it helped. I don't think lighting a candle looks fruitless either - more that it gives a feeling of care and solidarity. Such a sad and difficult thing to come to terms with - I am mentally lighting a candle and saying a prayer for everyone affected by it.
So glad that you are all safe Bop but so right ... utter horror that should never happen yet I fear will continue to unless we wake up as a world to what we are doing to each other.
Oh Boptilly, this is all so tragic and I'm sorry it's been so close to home. There is no understanding the mentality of these people or the horror it causes to ordinary folk like us.
All we can do is carry on unbowed. Continue to look for the good in others and keep our loved ones close and make sure they know how important they are to us.
Thanks Ully. You are so right, we really should make sure we let the people we care about know how much they mean to us. That's a positive and active way to deal with what happened - and it is a good way to live your life.
Normality is what Terrorists are really trying to defeat. You running shows they have not won a victory. When people watch you go by, you area sign and living example that life does go on despite the heartache and horror.
It shows the Terrorists that they have not cowed people into huddling in what were there homes, but have now become prisons.
I'm 100% positive you dress appropriately and run with decorum as you go by or near the scene of this atrocity. I commend your sense that it is 'sacred territory' now and won't actually run through it.
Let those who would impose their insane theology on the rest of us see you run in the neighborhood however so they can realise that you and others like you - and you a female at that - will not let them win the victory of being able to dictate and restrict how you live your life, your beliefs, your freedoms...
Thanks John. I really cannot understand the mentality behind these acts. Why would anyone want to just kill a random group of people who happen to be at a certain place at a certain time? I also cannot understand blowing yourself up to achieve the same. Other than mental illness, I cannot make any sense out of it.
It's a psychosis. People who fear and hate life, who cannot find the courage to endure the ups and downs, uncertainties and vagaries that are part of the experience of being sentient human beings. They long for perfect acceptance, guaranteed personal security and total immunity from judgement for all faults and crimes. They cannot understand how the rest of us can accept life on life's terms and make something of ourselves while living within the same psychological boundaries.
They hate what they don't understand.
Then add in a background vulture based on "individuals are puppets of fate" which releases them from personal responsibility and a tribal set of 'rules' which does not translate very well from a subsistence tribal lifestyle to a modern one of reasonable abundance within a State.....And you have some very desperate suicidally-ideated people who are more afraid to go on living than they are of dying.
And what better "honorable" way to kill yourself if not for a "cause"? Or even better - a god who will make you one of his favourites and supply all your needs if you 'do it for him'
When the Titanic went down, the cry at the lifeboats was "Women and children first!'
When a ferryboat goes down in one of those benighted countries (a regular event owing to uncaring overloading) its a case of "Every man for himself!"
The deaths were so pointless and ultimately reasonless except in the thinking of madmen. Be grateful you can't truly understand why they did it - HOW they could do it -because to grasp it you would have to join them in the Abyss.
I wish I had something better for you and especially for you to offer your daughter, only thing I can say is that in the long run Decency does seem to triumph if you study history. In the meantime all we can be expected to do is try and be decent ourselves... I wish every good thing for you all as you work through your sorrow and conflict.
Bop, it really brings it home to you when this happens practically on your doorstep. I am so glad you and your family are okay . This is just so tragic and I just cannot comprehend the mentality of the people that carry out these cowardly attacks on innocent people .
" When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the World will know peace "
Wishing you a safe and peaceful Christmas, our thoughts are with you xxx
Thanks Molly. Berlin is carrying on as normal now but there is a tenseness about that wasn't there before. Hope you have a peaceful and happy Christmas.
Thank goodness for running Flossy, so glad we both discovered it. It doesn't fix all your problems but it helps you have some inner calm and I think we all need that in these crazy times. Hope you'll have a great Christmas with the little one - her first!
Thank you tortoise. Life goes on I guess. It must be very hard for those who are permanently maimed or have lost someone to see that though I always think. We still have 16 people in critical condition - hopefully they will pull through. Some of them are only children.
Stay safe, Bop. Lightning rarely strikes twice and the authorities are warned (although this was always on the cards after Nice - it's just too damned easy), so Berlin should be safe. Too close to home though and very nasty for youngsters like your daughter. All we can do is live our lives and prove to these cowards that they cannot win. Keep running and Merry Christmas despite everything🥂🍾
Merry Christmas to you and your family too. Unfortunately the perpertrator seems to be armed and on the loose according to the police so that isn't good but I hope we'll have a peaceful Christmas now. I have to admit I am avoiding crowds and public transport at peak times but not everyone has those options.
I totally agree with orchards it was'nt callous to go out.When things like this happen you have to carry on just being a bit more careful and lighting a candle is a way of showing that in the darktimes there is always light shining through. Hope you daughter gets over the shock but tell her to not let it get her down I know what it is like having been in the airforce during the worst of the troubles and we just carried on with the attitude they won't win.
Thanks very much for that Michael. Much appreciated. Those must have been hugely stressful times for you. You're right of course we all have to keep going. The young people tend to be quite resilient and if things are calm for a while, I am sure they will bounce back. Hope you have a great Christmas.
People say that each of us know someone who has been affected by such awful events - I consider it a privilege to 'know' you through these forums and our connection through running. I can only echo what others have said and send you my warmest thoughts and hugs. No one knows what lies ahead in 2017 - maybe that's a good thing - who knows?
Terrible tragedy! Take care bop! My locality suffered tragedy recently, not by terrorism, but a speeding tram went over killing 7 people, a guy I know, a firefighter, went in on the rescue witnessing the carnage. I went into town today for Christmas shopping by tram, actually travelling on the same route.
Why was the tram speeding Dave? I often think it must be very hard for emergency workers going in and having to deal with all the injured. I can imagine the scenes stay with you for a long time.
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Have a nice Christmas and I hope it is a safe and peaceful one for you too.
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