*Louise**

Quelle tristesse

For a while our media mourned with you. Our screens were filled with scenes no one wanted to see, though we sat transfixed by images of flames while you stood transfixed by the sight of the flames. The heat and smoke from the flames, and the roar and crash as centuries of craftsmanship, histories of people from around the world dissolved before your eyes.

Soon our media turned inwards as they do. What if it happened to our Palace of Westminster? Then a realisation – this did happen many years ago to our York Minster. And we survived, the media said, as the pledges of funding began to roll in.

And now the media has already turned away. A shooting, a stabbing… a climate rebellion.

But let’s not follow the media path — though we must think about the climate emergency if we are to save Notre Dame, the Palace of Westminster and York Minster, and save our selves.

Let’s take another moment to remember what was, to mourn what has occurred. And then let’s dream big dreams for what our future needs to be.

Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, Debra Broughton and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work