Hello all you wonderful people. Today we celebrate the fact that I have stuck to this for a full year with an awesome episode full of stuff that I wanted to talk about. Next time we will go back to me trying to string all the facts about everything that ever happened into a coherent narrative, but for now we focus on a little valley that for no particular reason I have found fascinating for years. It's a party! put on a fun hat, procure a relaxing beverage of your choice, and get ready to listen to me talk in a monotone for an hour.
On a less fun note, some of you are aware that I have family in France, living in Paris, and asked if they were ok. I really appreciate it. Terrorist attacks are becoming depressingly common, and when you hear about something your walls go up and you go on with your day, making that spreadsheet and editing that map. We have been led by our emotions into too many dark places this decade, and for us history folks especially, I think, it is very easy to just say wait, we don't know, let what is happening happen and analyze it later.
As the scale of the attacks and their location became clear the walls became harder to maintain. This wasn't a targeted attack, this was random, and bloody, and the sweet emotional guard of statistics starts to wear down as the body counts rise. Compounding things, we were not really able to get a hold of anyone for some time.
As it happens, everyone is fine, but the more details that have soaked through the more disturbing it has been. Not so much the barbarity of the attacks, which at this point is also depressingly expected, as how close the attacks came to places and people I know and love. The reaction of the French has been, on a whole, admirable, as befits a wonderful and caring people, and I hope they continue in the vein of reasonable self protection, efforts to fix the situation, but guided by caring and restraint.
The video below was from before the attacks but it was a happy moment, one I hope can be held onto as we all move forward.
As the scale of the attacks and their location became clear the walls became harder to maintain. This wasn't a targeted attack, this was random, and bloody, and the sweet emotional guard of statistics starts to wear down as the body counts rise. Compounding things, we were not really able to get a hold of anyone for some time.
As it happens, everyone is fine, but the more details that have soaked through the more disturbing it has been. Not so much the barbarity of the attacks, which at this point is also depressingly expected, as how close the attacks came to places and people I know and love. The reaction of the French has been, on a whole, admirable, as befits a wonderful and caring people, and I hope they continue in the vein of reasonable self protection, efforts to fix the situation, but guided by caring and restraint.
The video below was from before the attacks but it was a happy moment, one I hope can be held onto as we all move forward.
