Sometimes there really is lemonade to be made from lemons, and out of a crisis some good is to be found. For me, in the recent madness that London has witnessed in the last 48 hours where the London Fire Brigade have answered over 3,000 calls, has also brought with it a reminder of the courage, strength, resilience, solidarity and community spirit that some might have feared would be extinguished with the fires, or frightened away by the numerous exhibitions of gratuitous violence.
Walking around the deserted streets of Clapham Junction earlier, which was descended upon by an estimated crowd of over 1,000 troublemakers less than 24 hours ago, whilst the evidence of what has gone on is visible, there was a very different atmosphere to that created yesterday afternoon when rumours started to surface that trouble was on its way...
Admittedly rather quieter than usual, with two of the main roads closed off, and being attended to by police officers, people were milling around, going about their business this evening, and frequenting several local establishments serving beverages, and providing valuable opportunities to 'process' all that has happened over the last day or so. It struck me that, in this way, many locals are availing themselves of a sort of therapy: informal sharing of anecdotes is an important and natural way in which we all progress and survive the shock we experience when we experience something unusual, or unexpected. 
"Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think."
Jawaharlal Nehru (Prime Minister of India 1947-64)
No comments:
Post a Comment