āWhat hits really hard in moments like this is that reallyā¦ nothing is forever. The loss of history, of art, of creation, is real and deeply tragic. But whatās really itching at the insides of my chest is watching something I thought was forever suddenly not exist.
āWe know this, of course. We know in our brains that nothing lasts. But that doesnāt stop us from just going about our lives forgetting about that reality. And then we get hit in the face by itā¦ sometimes individually, sometimes collectively.
āA lot of us are feeling this now togetherā¦ though at the same time, many other people donāt have such a visceral tie to Notre Dame. Which is why Iām doing my best to not be very angry at the "itās just a buildingā comments. (Though, honestly, if thatās how you feel, be quiet.)
āBut Katherine also reminded me that Notre Dame is not one thingā¦ and while nothing lasts, the story of human culture isnāt of building things that last forever, itās changing, growing, progressing, remembering, and /rebuilding./
"She reminded me that Notre Dame is history, but so is today. We donāt get to be separate from history. And we are not the first people to see beautiful things destroyed. Indeed, weāre not the first to see much of Notre Dame Cathedral destroyed.
"Much of Notre Dame is nearly 1000 years old. Some of it is 50 years old. The spire was built 150 years ago. The Rose Window is (was) from the 1200s. Itās heartbreaking.
"But in a moment when Iām reminded of how fragile things are, I also want to be reminded of how much we have created and preservedā¦ and how much we have rebuilt. So that feeling is in there with the bad ones. Itās not bigger than the bad ones, but itās in there too.ā
- Hank Green after talking with his wife Katherine about the tragic fire consuming Notre Dame
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