{"id":23605,"date":"2019-04-18T12:58:02","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23605"},"modified":"2019-04-18T12:58:11","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:58:11","slug":"brocks-banter-a-part-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-a-part-of-us\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: A part of us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you were like me on Monday, you might\nhave found it very hard to get work done as you sat gripped to your computer,\ntelevision or device watching the fire at Paris\u2019 Notre Dame Cathedral unfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the outset, it seemed within the realm\nof hope that it might just be a small roof fire, sparked by ongoing renovation\nand restoration efforts intended to keep the iconic edifice in good repair for\nanother millennium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, and all too quickly, it became all\ntoo clear that this was not a fire that could be quickly doused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within an hour or two, flames were raging\nthrough the architectural marvel of the ceiling, reducing it to beams, then\ncinders, before it ultimately came crashing down on the floor below; a floor\nthat had been trod on for nearly 1,000 years by innumerable members of the\nclergy, millions of the faithful, ever more millions of tourists from around\nthe globe, not to mention a panoply of the great and good, infamous and\nterrible from the annals of our collective history \u2013 kings and queens, emperors\nand popes, traitors, historical heretics and martyrs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching the life stream from the bottom\nleft corner of my computer screen, my momentarily diverted eyes were drawn back\nto it again as a gasp that will be seared forever in my mind emanated from the\nhundreds of onlookers as the cathedral\u2019s spire, and way-finder for generations,\ncollapsed like a house of cards into the inferno below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This unforgettable gasp was followed a\nshort time later by something equally unforgettable: the sound of hundreds of\nvoices raised in hymn for hours as they watched their \u201chome\u201d burn down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many of the members of public, it was\ntheir spiritual home; a place where they were baptized, married, gathered for\nimportant observances, or said farewell to a loved one. For others\u2026well, it was\na spiritual home as well, an embodiment of yet another eternal city, a\nguidepost, a testament to something that transcended mere time, a monument that\nhad withstood centuries of religious strife, conflict, a handful of\nrevolutions, two World Wars, and ongoing civil unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, with a spark, almost all was lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the point of this writing, the outer\nwalls of the cathedral, including its iconic towers, appear to be safe. Given\nthe destruction within, it\u2019s something of a comfort that these landmarks will\ncontinue to be a beacon of sorts to generations to come, but the loss inside is\nincalculable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy thoughts are with all Catholics and\nall French people,\u201d said French President Emmanuel Macron in a statement as the\nfire raged. \u201cLike all of our compatriots, I am sad this evening to see this\npart of us burning.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to note that the President\ndid not say, \u201ca part of the city\u201d, or \u201ca part of our history.\u201d It is, indeed, a\npart of us. No matter where the upper branches in our family tree first\nsprouted, threads of our collective consciousness could be found inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are a member of the Catholic faith,\nthe connections don\u2019t need to be stated, but the relics protected in what was\nonce Notre Dame, from the purported relics of\nChrist to the incomparable works of art, are something each and every one of us\ncould relate to in our own way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a personal note, I\njust wish I had a clearer picture on just what this personal connection was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I visited Paris\nin 2007 on an extended stopover on the way back from elsewhere, I had the\npleasure of staying at a youth hostel in the heart of the city. Certainly not\npurpose-built, the hostel was built into the solid stone walls of a\nconglomeration of historic buildings, each with a story to tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My arrival at the\nhostel was not auspicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, my\nreservation seemed to have gone astray. Then, once found and a room assigned,\nmy battle-scarred suitcase gave up its will to live on the fifth flight of my\nsix flight trip to my bedroom, leaving two months worth of clothes streaming\ndown a flight or two and once finally settled in I felt like I was almost on\nautopilot: aware of my surroundings, conscious of the fact I had a whole new\ncity to explore, but slightly detached from it all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I climbed back down\nthose six flights of stairs, a journey made tricky by a back still a bit angry\nfrom the suitcase debacle, I set out to visit one of the places on the top of\nmy list: Notre Dame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being slightly dazed\nfrom the long journey, I don\u2019t remember much of what happened next, just a\nfeeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I opened the heavy\nwooden gates of the hostel and walked casually, without a map, and definitely\nwith no GPS on my pay-as-you-go flip phone, directly to the cathedral not even\npaying attention to the landmarks around me. Yet, somehow I knew instinctively\nhow to get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As odd as it sounds, I\nexperienced a peculiar sensation as I walked to Notre Dame that I had been down\nthat path before, many times. But that was certainly not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once behind its stone\nwalls, I was overcome with that sensation as it intensified: an indescribable\nfeeling that I was back where I had once been, a place that in which I had\nalready spent many hours and had been, in a way that I have not been able to\npinpoint, somehow influential to my past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elusive as it was, I\nhad hoped to visit once again sometime in the years ahead to see if that feeling was still as potent as it was the first time\nand, if so, being more conscious of the feeling, whether I would be better able\nto discern why that feeling was simply so overwhelming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder how many of\nyou who had been privileged enough to walk under its arches experienced the\nsame thing. Once France rebuilds this testament to our collective heritage,\nwill it be possible to experience it again?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Easter or\nPassover, however you observe, it might be an opportunity now to take stock of\nyour spiritual home and the treasures contained within, and make renewed\nmemories of the things you might otherwise pass by without a second glance. If\nyour spiritual home, however you define it, is outside a traditional place of\nworship, make a special effort to appreciate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all know it can be gone in an instant.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir If you were like me on Monday, you might have found it very hard to get work done as you sat gripped to your computer, television or device watching the fire at Paris\u2019 Notre Dame Cathedral unfold. At the outset, it seemed within the realm of hope that it might just be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-68J","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 00:37:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}