I sat down at my computer this morning to write this blog, not sure what I would write about. This past week has been so full of emotional and dramatic events that I feel drained and exhausted, and I feel completely uninspired to write about mundane travel plans or other comparatively unimportant issues. At the same time, my writing abilities are not suited to the task of framing the events of this week into words which can adequately express — or make any sense of — what they meant to me or those whose lives they impacted so greatly. 

Just last night the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was captured, and there is some relief in knowing that he will no longer be able to terrorize that city’s citizens. At the same time, that relief is tempered with the troubling questions which so many of us have been struggling with these past few days: What could lead these people to commit such horrific acts? What evil acted upon them to in turn inflict such evil upon innocents? If such as these, who apparently led “ordinary” lives and succeeded in school and were seen by their friends as “good people,” could do such things, how much more hatred is seething in the world that we do not suspect?

What I return to, again and again, are all the images and stories of those who were quick to aid those gravely wounded, who in spite of the danger around them applied tourniquets and makeshift bandages to strangers and then remained to hold a hand, to stroke a head, to whisper words of comfort so that the injured would not feel alone. These acts of selfless love for another human being encourage me to see that as long as we have that, we can fight against the evil and hatred with a power stronger than any bomb.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor