Because of the internet, the whole world is linked together. Thousands of miles and oceans apart are turned into nothing more than a few seconds of loading time. Because of the internet, we are all together in Paris.
But tonight, as we have spent the day glued to news channels and Twitter feeds, much as we grieve in compassion with this city, known for its love and light, I also feel like humanity – once again when met with such tragedy and evil – has prevailed.
Free taxi rides and open doors – small, but equally heroic actions – were how Paris and France met barbarity with humanity.
Images have been emerging throughout the day from the French capital, of citizens lining up outside hospitals and clinics, offering to donate blood to help the wounded. Of thousands putting down flowers and lighting candles, shedding tears for the many who lost their lives. Of the musician who brought his piano along and played John Lennon’s Imagine in front of the Bataclan Theatre, where only hours previous, more than 80 young concert goers had lost their lives at the hands of crazed gunmen.
The world wept with Paris. But with our tears and wows to honor those lost and injured, it seems so many are more determined than ever to answer this hate and evil with not more hate, but with even more humanity, more care and more love.
It brings me right back to that July day in 2011, when terror struck in my home-city of Oslo. I was there that day, as it happened. The city center was chaotic. A place of shock and confusion and fear. Because these things aren’t meant to happen in our peaceful and peacemaking little part of the world. Yet it did. I was in the middle of it, but made it home, safe, sound and lucky.
It would then, like now, be so easy to answer hate with hate, to let fear prevail, but that is exactly what did not happen. Norway did not come out to rally and rant and hate. Instead, people took to the streets and filled them with roses, compassion, openness and love. We took the values that we hold so dear here in our part of the world, and we filled the streets with them.
I remember standing, with my too-young-to-understand daughter, outside Oslo Cathedral, in a sea of flowers and flags and burning lights, and I knew then, that evil will never win. One man – or or one group – filled with hate will not – and will never – be stronger or more powerful that hundreds of thousands filled with love.
The share magnitude and volume of people that filled the streets of Oslo in the days following the terror attack was humbling and amazing. The sense of calm. Of respect. Of togetherness. Young, old, black, white, united across borders and religions and color, they filled the streets with love. Roses they had carried with them were placed all around the city. On statues and fountains, on postboxes and bicycles. On the windscreen wipers of police cars and ambulances. In fountains, along bridges, on traffic lights and road-signs. Roses were left in doorways. By broken windows. In the wire safety fences set up by the police to secure the bomb zone. It was a beautiful and moving and powerful sight.
And now, the world is doing the same for Paris. We light up buildings and landmarks, we share images of the Eiffel Tower as a symbolic peace sign, and around the world, #PrayForParis is being tapped into status updates, alongside thoughts, prayers and news. Many memos and tweets are also being shared to remind us that these acts are being done by an extremists few, not by a people or a religion.
I hope Paris keeps responding the way they are doing. I hope they fill the streets and coffee shops and restaurants and concert halls with love and life and laughter. I hope they dance and drink red wine and hug their friends and family and take back their city. Paris IS love.
In times when a crazed few misrepresent the human race, it is always of utmost importance to remember that good will always triumphs over evil.
