To Boston: From a Small Running Blog

~ Penny

This week I travelled to Tennessee for work, which made it an ideal time to blog, because I was just fidgeting alone in my hotel room all night. Except I couldn't. Or rather wouldn't.

The problem I had, was that I felt obliged to insert something in the blogpost about Boston. But while Kristen and I love this blog, we know its not a big one. We dont have a following that warrants the "statement" in support of Boston casualties. And by statement, I don't mean a fashion statement, but rather a "statement" like the White House puts out a statement. Like a press release. It seems that that is what most of the big and mid-sized blogs "do" in response to an event, before they carry on their regular posting schedule. It is usually a seemingly genuine expression of commiseration and sympathy for those affected, possibly an eye-witness account or personal anecdote and sometimes a link to charities to which readers can donate money or time to help.

But given that we don't have a huge readership, I felt like such a statement would seem to be a bit out of place, and perhaps even inappropriate on our little blog. And that's assuming I knew what the hell to say, other than "its horrible, tragic, awful." In fact a big expressive statement like the "big blogs" post, might appear to be just paying lip service to the whole thing. And given that this blog is more a diary of our running exploits, it seems a little farcical to do something like that.

On the other hand, not posting something doesn't seem right either. Boston was horrible and tragic, for anyone and everyone affected. It should be acknowledged, if for no other reason, than it was an incredibly sad thing to happen to a lot of innocent people. But like famine in Ethiopia, or violence in Darfur, these horrible things happen every day without getting a mention on most of our blogs. Perhaps the solution to this issue is that highlighting tragedy that affects "us" in the first world serves to teach and remind us how horrific the violence is for those who have to live with it, day in and day out.

In any case, after pondering these thoughts for a while, I arrived at my ultimate destination: mass overwhelming guilt for even considering this a dilemma. Gosh, the hardest thing in my day is deciding whether to write a blog post acknowledging the suffering of people who have lost limbs and even DIED.

Well now. That put it in perspective. But still not knowing what to write, I decided to write the above. Just as a reminder of precisely how first-world my problems are. But also an acknowledgment that in the midst of tragedy, its ok to have responses ranging from mass out-pouring of grief to slight bewilderment and confusion as to how to respond.

And, for the record, my heart and prayers go out to those who were hurt or affected in any way by what happened at the Boston Marathon, April 15, 2013.