The other evening, after the morning's news of attacks at the Brussels Airport and the subway station, I was sitting in our spacious, concrete, modern parish church for choir practice. No one even discussed or mentioned the terrorist attacks, but got down to the business of singing. In the middle of a hymn, my fellow-chorister suddenly seemed alarmed and hyper-vigilant, jumped up and whispered something to our new director. He looked around, and then I saw a figure in the back of the church walking around, apparently looking around for something. He was a nicely-dressed, dark-complexioned man with a beard, dressed in a suit. He had apparently come in the unlocked main door, and then momentarily left by another door, returning a few minutes later through the same door. He then disappeared behind a pillar from our view, near the votive candles. My neighbor-singer said, "how did he get in here? No one ever visits at this time of the evening." The man left peacefully without incident, and then one of us ran to lock the door. I kind of thought to myself, "What has happened to us that we react so fearfully after all these news reports.
The same fearful reaction happened to me while I was traveling by rail in Spain after the attack on a commuter train A passenger across from me left his seat for the snack bar, securing his place with his back-pack. Since we have been repeatedly warned to notice unattended bags, I immediately became alarmed thinking there was a bomb in the sack. I felt frozen, but the man returned without incident.
Another time, I was returning home on an over-booked flight and my seat was separated from my traveling companion. I sat at the back of the plane next to a window by myself. Soon other passengers arrived sitting next to me. The two were dark-complexioned young men who I immediately thought could be from somewhere in the middle-east. I became frightened and kept staring out the window watching my baggage being loaded and wondering what I should do. I felt so biased and confused as to why I was suspicious that they were terrorists even though we had all been thru the screening process. Finally, I decided the best thing to do would be to engage them in a conversation--find out who they were. I started talking about my baggage and the young man next to be starting talking. I found out that he was a well-educated, courteous student of Indian descent. . I then felt less fearful and relaxed for the rest of the flight.
When I saw the news-clippings the other day, I wondered why no one had noticed the two suicide-bombers walking rapidly, pushing carts with one glove on their left hand. Did they blend in? Were people too busy with their own problems. I know we have been told to be observant and vigilant about those around us in crowded circumstances. The Airport gives repeated announcements about watching your luggage and noticing any bags left behind, but it is so easy to miss the obvious.
Well, I don't have many answers to all my questions about this fear-mongering society. I look out the window and see a beautiful, sunny day with birds flying, and the ocean roaring. I think we need to be mindful of what we are thinking and be curious about our surroundings, On my email I often get articles from people admonishing us to pray and be fearful of some event. When I do my homework and look into the reports, I usually discover that there has been an incident but that it was blown out of proportion. So I know not to take what people say, especially on the internet, as concrete evidence Yes, let's be vigilant, watchful, curious, but we need to temper our fears with knowledge and insight. We need to know our neighbors, be friendly and inclusive, and realize when we make judgments without finding the truth.
P.S. I am learning a lot about observing from my "Maisey Dobbs mysteries."
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