I remember the last time I was in the cathedral of Notre Dame in a city that at this distance in time- like San Francisco once was- is frozen in amber magic. A lot has changed since I last visited either of them. A pal sent a “poop map” of the City by the Bay this morning as a guide to pedestrians.
We all saw the images of the great cathedral in flames yesterday. It was miserable, and heartbreaking.
The media ruled out terror in the case of the conflagration, and although they had no evidence to factually demonstrate that it wasn’t, I was hard pressed to find that this was not a metaphor for the fall of the West. I mean, a workman left a device energized in the reconstruction of Windsor Palace that caused the ancient place to go up in flames, and this is probably the same thing, right?
Memories. The ex had come to France with some other Airwing SIX wives for a mid-deployment adventure in 1990 when the Soviet Union was unraveling and we were directed to remain in port at Marseilles to avoid aggravating the situation. A month of taxpayer-funded tourism in Metropolitan France was about the best part of a Navy career.
The visit to Notre Dame was the culmination of a grand trek across the City of Lights. With Rome, it is one of the places I enjoyed the most in this wide world.
They are saying today that the devastation is not as bad as it could have been. I am gratified by that, though I doubt seriously that I will be back. There was a little bistro on the river, not more than a block away from the rose window on the facade of the church. It is apparently still there, against the odds, and the vows are strident that the epic structure will be refurbished.
I hope so. And I hope the bilingual signs warning about the presence of pickpockets go back up, too. I wonder how long the reconstruction will last?
We- or rather the workmen- had the Pentagon up and running again in six months after 9/11. Pretty amazing. We will see how the Macron government does on repairing this cultural wound.
I wish them the very best. Nearly nine hundred years of history is worth saving. So is the West.
– Vic
Copyright 2019 Vic Socotra
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