Notre Dame Fire - Tumblr Posts
Well... heck. My mom literally just called me and told me this was happening (”I know it meant a lot to you when we visited it, so I wanted to let you know”, she told me) and I just... didn’t really know how to react. Honestly, I opened tumblr to kind of distract myself, but then I suppose I am glad to know some more facts and specifics on exactly how bad it is.
I did look up the video of the tower collapse, too. Wow. It does feel like a gut punch to watch.
But I am glad most of the stone structure of the building should be alright. I was in first grade when we visited it, and I would love to go there again; I know you can’t exactly order a new church spire online, but hopefully they can get it fixed.
Thank you for the information. My prayers are with you.
notre dame is burning.
this is ok.
it has happened before. it will happen again. it has been lost before. it will be lost again. and again. and again. and again. art and architecture are transient, and temporary, and 850 years may seem like a lot to the individual, who will live maybe 100 if they are very lucky and very healthy, but even the pyramids at saqqara have only existed for about 6000 years and that’s still not all that much, if you consider the grand scheme of things.
yes, this is terrible. as someone who is deeply religious and literally a professional historian with a focus on art and architecture, this is terrible. im mourning. im gutted. im horrified and upset and miserable. but.
it’s not over.
victor hugo wrote hunchback because notre dame du paris was in the process of collapsing and falling apart, and revitalized the entire world’s focus and love for this church, and that was not even 200 years ago. it led to it being renovated.
the roof has fallen in. the scars of fires are on its buttresses. the rose window has fallen out. the beams and piers have collapsed. the spire has toppled. the stones have suffered, and will suffer again, but it is not gone.
renovation work is essential. sometimes things collapse and burn and break and have to come back. it’s not a terrorist attack, it’s renovation, an accident, but we have so much evidence, history, carefully documented everything on one of the most studied places in the world.
it’s not the end.
I figured I’d go ahead and reblog the updated version, because it is rather relieving to see the inside looking recognizable, though damaged.
(Also, I ramble about guilt regarding what I do & don’t reblog after the cut.)
Of course, people are also posting now about other important fires in culturally significant buildings that have happened recently and asking why this one is getting all the attention; and, of course, as bad things happening in the world right now go, there are doubtless a great many of them doing more immediate harm to people. Obviously, humans are more important than buildings. In short, it’s making me feel guilty that this is basically the first news story I’ve shared on my tumblr, and there are probably more significant things I should’ve reblogged in the past. I mean, I’m pretty sure I still have things about the recent floods not far from us in the midwest sitting in my drafts somewhere. The fact is that typically I take a long time to process a post, because I am the sort of person who takes a long time to think through what I want to say--and then I probably say too much, but I still always feel like I’m never saying everything I mean to or would like to.
In short, I am not the blog to follow for timely commentary on things, because I take weeks to process the average post. The first Notre Dame post I shared just struck an ideal storm of coincidences for me to have the time and motivation to post it in a timely manner. When there are other terrible things going on in the world that it seems I should be posting about, know that if I have heard about them, then I likely care about them and am praying about them. There are just always so many things. This is why my prayers so often escalate to “bless everyone, God, because everyone is dealing with something or another that is troubling them in some way, and everyone needs you”. I know I really should be more specific in my prayers, but it’s also true that everyone needs God, and the more I hear about the problems of the world, the more people I feel the need to pray for, and so that’s where I wind up.
Since my first ‘in short’ didn’t work, I’ll try one again: in short, I see these things and I care about them, and I’m sorry if my reblogging isn’t always balanced towards the most important human disasters. This is foremost a multi-fandom blog, and maybe I shouldn’t have dabbled in news at all, but this one just struck me for a moment.
Sorry this post devolved more into my guilt about all the things I don’t reblog rather than an update on Notre Dam.
notre dame is burning.
this is ok.
it has happened before. it will happen again. it has been lost before. it will be lost again. and again. and again. and again. art and architecture are transient, and temporary, and 850 years may seem like a lot to the individual, who will live maybe 100 if they are very lucky and very healthy, but even the pyramids at saqqara have only existed for about 6000 years and that’s still not all that much, if you consider the grand scheme of things.
yes, this is terrible. as someone who is deeply religious and literally a professional historian with a focus on art and architecture, this is terrible. im mourning. im gutted. im horrified and upset and miserable. but.
it’s not over.
victor hugo wrote hunchback because notre dame du paris was in the process of collapsing and falling apart, and revitalized the entire world’s focus and love for this church, and that was not even 200 years ago. it led to it being renovated.
the roof has fallen in. the scars of fires are on its buttresses. the rose window has fallen out. the beams and piers have collapsed. the spire has toppled. the stones have suffered, and will suffer again, but it is not gone.
renovation work is essential. sometimes things collapse and burn and break and have to come back. it’s not a terrorist attack, it’s renovation, an accident, but we have so much evidence, history, carefully documented everything on one of the most studied places in the world.
it’s not the end.