Les Miserables

The terrorist attacks were Friday, and Saturday was Les Miserable at Davis High.  What a timely show to sit through.  I was teary-eyed for most of it, but when it came to "Bring Him Home," it was very moving.  Niall Thorley (Curly in last year's Oklahoma that my kids were in, if you saw that) nailed every note.  Empty Chairs at Empty Tables was another tear jerker.  The terrorists were very savvy about their targets, going after young, progressive, integrated Parisians in diverse, non-tourist neighborhoods, to drive home the point that this could happen anywhere, to anyone.  I just kept thinking about all those empty chairs and empty tables the next day.  Reporters seemed extremely shaken as they reported the aftermath.  One observed that the cafe that was the scene of one massacre hadn't been cleaned up yet.  Everyone was in a state of shock.  And yet, four days later, the Eiffel Tower was lit up in a brilliant blue, white and red, adorned with the Latin words, "fluctuat nec mergitur,' bringing to mind a ship that is "tossed but not sunk."  Our French friends all told us that they were not afraid.  They're resilient and defiant, and they're showing it.

My mom and Trajan and Micaela and her mom are still in Paris, sad and shaken.  They'll have to tell the story of their experience when they get home in a couple of weeks.  For now, we try to make sense of the world, and follow the example of the French ideals of living life to the fullest.

This is the distinction between the historical characters in Les Miz, who led a failed revolution, and the people who were killed last week in Paris.  "The people who died this evening were outside living, drinking, singing.  They didn't know that they had declared war."

The first moments after my friend Michelle Fitzgerald alerted me and I contacted my mom.  They had been at a movie that night.