Why the burning of Notre Dame is making me so sad.

It’s not what you think.

It is both sad that it burned and sad how people are reacting.

When I watched it burn, I felt a strong sense of loss and it was evident that many others did too. People filled the streets in Paris watching, singing and praying. It was a unique feeling because the loss was intangible at first. I wasn’t sad for the people dying, there was none. I wasn’t sad because someone had torched Notre Dame, in an act of terrorism. It was an accident. I finally realized I was sad because an almost thousand-year-old piece of western civilization was gone forever. Yes, I realize they will rebuild it, but it is never going to be the same. My sadness was for future generations that will not have the opportunity to experience this part of history through the way it looks and feels, not just what they read.

It burned on Monday and by Tuesday the cash was rolling in. In less than two days, over a billion dollars had been raised in support of the restoration of Notre Dame and people are still giving. And all of a sudden, I was sad again. But this time, I felt sad for a completely new reason. Why are we able to raise money for a building so quickly, while ignoring people’s lives burning down around us? I realize this has no direct connection to Notre Dame, however when people suffer, why don’t we respond like this?

All throughout our country, and many other countries, there are people dying daily. War, starvation, climate change, disease and everything you can imagine is causing the lives of people to figuratively “burn up”. And yet we stand and mourn and pray for an empty building that has gone up in flames. People are sending donations and rallying for support of the rebuild of a monument that burned only a few days ago, all while people are living and dying around them without notice. Even the White House has offered financial support to rebuild Notre Dame, even though people in Flint are still going without drinkable water, our country is still a leader in greenhouse emissions and people are dying in cages at our southern border.

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