I've struggled to find the words to describe watching Notre Dame burn. Imagining the colossal, the heroic effort to save the building, the art. The unthinkable was happening, the inconceivable was on the television. My heart ached, then broke, for Parisians. Who felt the pain far more than I ever could. Finally what reduced me to tears were the images of people, many young, kneeling. Singing. As the Great Lady burned. A reminder that, as magnificent as Notre Dame was, and is, and will be again, it is finally simply a physical reflection of the place of worship inside us all. The unassailable cathedral we carry with us into our everyday lives. Notre Dame has been saved. Thanks to heroic efforts by fire departments. Thanks to many heroic acts we might never hear about. And, maybe, thanks to the simple, humble, act of sinking to the knees, and singing.
