I came late to this news story. I’d been away from my desk for an hour and came back to find my Facebook feed blowing up with the most horrible, unbelievable photographs. I spare you links to the same here – I imagine everyone will see those photos many times in the next few days – so I include a 29 year old set from a childhood family trip to Europe.
I don’t think we went in. Our stop in Paris was so short, and we were trying to see so much in just a couple of days. As a teenager my interest in history competed with my interest in clothes and records, and I always thought something like the Notre Dame was perennial, permanent. I mean, it had survived over 800 years and umpteen wars. Something like that could never be destroyed, not really. I’d see the rest someday.
I guess I’ll never see it now, or at least, not as it was.
The last news report I heard before I typed this was that the structure had been saved but the spire and roof are lost, and the fate of much of the artwork and wooden interior is as yet unknown. I watch updates in a kind of morbid fascination, if only because I keep thinking this is the last time, the last time I see any of this, and I don’t want to miss it.
Happily, no one was injured in the fire. Human life is paramount, and this tragedy would have been all the worse if there were fatalities. But art and architecture aren’t trivial. I’m not religious myself but humanity’s beliefs in their deities of choice have inspired outstanding, unique artworks that I fear we’ll now never see again.
Not sure where I was going with this, just that I felt I couldn’t let this moment pass without saying something. Remember, someday is now.
If want to share your own feelings about the fire, or if you have any memories of Notre Dame, please feel free to share them in the comments.
