Oblivious

[peteryoung]

I have only just heard about Madrid on Radio 4 this morning, and this news is already 24 hours old.

Yesterday I got up at 4am and went to see a couple of friends in Paris. Flew over. Some idiot in the Charles de Gaulle Airport immigration queue was making some sarcastic comment about expecting bombs in Paris railway stations, and I had no idea what had made him say that.

Got the RER train into Paris, stayed the afternoon, despite feeling ill all day. I couldn't eat, so all I had yesterday was a chamomile tea on the Champs-Élysées. Around 7.30pm I took the same train back to CDG, flew back to Heathrow, drove home in a snowstorm and went straight to bed, still feeling rather unwell.

All in complete ignorance of what had happened in Madrid. Now I feel even worse.

Comments

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

Well... don't.

You shouldn't feel bad about it in that way. Yes, it's horrible, but your knowing (or not) that it has happened changes nothing. You should NOT feel guilty about not being up to the minute on the news at all times because your energy is better spent doing things about stuff you *can* affect directly. Millions of people died yesterday, and the day before and every single day. They all have a story and if you were told them each individually you'd feel bad for them all (well, maybe not all, but most of them) but you couldn't change anything. The fact that many people died at once in Madrid is somewhat awful but so are the stories that aren't news worthy. You have sent good wishes to friends, recently, you have been through heartache of your own. You do a lot for charity and help people out all over the place with little gestures like picking up books and so on. Not hearing about a disaster until after many other people should not make you feel bad.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

Not hearing about a disaster until after many other people should not make you feel bad.

You're right of course, and thank you. Guess I just needed to tell it like it is.

[hnpcc]

What she said. Due to time differences and frequently not turning on the news I miss a lot of stuff - I didn't hear about the Bali bombing until quite late the day after it happened, and even Madrid I heard about the next day (although that's more to do with time differences).

The saddest one for me was confirming for the tram conductor who'd been working double shifts for a couple of days that Rabin had been assassinated and was dead. He couldn't believe it, he was totally shocked. He hadn't seen the news at all. I have no idea what background he was from, but it obviously affected him immensely.