Today is Valentine's day- so much joy and celebration for many people and yet so much sorrow for so many others. 40 soldiers were killed in Kashmir today by terrorists- what must their spouses feel? What memory will Valentine's day invoke for them the rest of their lives? India will retaliate and yet some more people will die- does it matter which side the people dying are on? The loss that those left behind feel- is there any way to fill that void? Does war victories help diminish the pain?
Valentine's day 12 years back is also when my father in law passed away. Every year this day brings profound sadness to my mother in law and imagining myself in her shoes, I feel deeply sad as well.
Back to today, with a heavy heart I dropped my daughter to school and was driving to work- there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky. As I looked at it, the well inside me broke and I started crying uncontrollably over the steering wheel for those who lost their loved ones. Will they ever look at a rainbow again and feel joy?
I came to work and I work at my desk- but I am sluggish and disoriented. I go get coffee and stop at the bathroom. There I run into Marian Croak. (Aside: I recently read about her to my daughter. Marian was named the 2014 Black Engineer of the Year award and FireceWireless Most Influential Women in Wireless. My daughter's been such a fan that she wanted to talk about Marian in her class when she was the historian for a week and responsible for reading history snippets. While I could not explain to my daughter what VoIP means, which Marian is credited to develop a lot of, I told her this women invented the infrastructure that supports the video chats with her grand parents in India and she has been in awe!)
Marian is so so sweet! I told her my daughter is her fan and she so very humbly said I should introduce them if I ever bring her in to work :) I took a picture with her to show my daughter- surely that will spark joy for her this Valentine's Day!
The world is full of horror and beauty in equal measures. There must be some balance and some meaning to all of this in totality.
''And still this emptiness persists
Perhaps this is as good as it gets
When you've given up the drink and those nasty cigarettes
Now I leave the party early at least with no regrets
I watch the sun as it comes up I watch it as it sets
Yeah this is as good as it gets''
Perhaps this is as good as it gets
When you've given up the drink and those nasty cigarettes
Now I leave the party early at least with no regrets
I watch the sun as it comes up I watch it as it sets
Yeah this is as good as it gets''
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