I don’t know what to say. Who am I to say anything? But writing is how I try to make some sense of my thoughts and feelings. So here I am.
Notre Dame is the grandest cathedral ever built. It is a monument to the greatest achievements of civilization, and has been for 850 years. It is a testament to the millennia of art and architecture that came before it, and the inspiration for countless works of art in all the centuries that have followed. It is beautiful. It is sacred.
And now it is gone.
When I first heard the cathedral was on fire, I thought to myself, “It will be fine. The damage will be harsh, but contained. Notre Dame Cathedral has survived for nearly a millennium – it won’t fall today.”
But it did fall. It will continue to fall. And experts fear that “nothing will remain.” Because to the Universe, to God if he exists, a thousand years is but a blink of an eye.
Today I feel small. The world seems small. The greatest achievements of civilization seem small.
For even the purest, grandest, colossal beauty was never built to last.
