The Victims of the Paris attack

The attack in the Bataclan theater in the 11th arrondissement of Paris on November 13^th. had the highest death casualties, with the death toll of eighty-nine people.  The terrorists entered the theater through the two main entrance and started open fired with automatic guns at concert goers.  They shot the people in the bar area first and then at the audience in the middle and then headed to the balcony and started shooting randomly at the people below. The American band Eagle of Death Metals and some concert goers used the exit on the left side of the stage to escape and survived the attack.  As the terrorists entered the building, one eyewitness, a concert goer himself, recalled turning around and saw a person with a bullet his eyes and many concert goers hid in a closet near the stage and the bathroom stalls waiting for any help to come.  One concert goer pretended to be dead and it seems like eternity before help came. Some witnesses described the inside of the building as a blood bath with people holding onto their loved ones and saying their final good bye to each other.  

All victims came from all over the world; they were nationals of Belgium, Sweden, France, United States, Mexico, Chile,  and Spain. They were students, engineers, teachers, lawyers, normal people who just wanted to have a fun Friday night.  They were at the wrong place and at the wrong time. My Asian mom said once that everyone’s time on earth is already determined by a god and maybe that is the reason for their tragic ending. Whatever the reason is, they have completed their cycle on earth and we all have to accept what happened and look to the future.  The 128 victims will always be remembered and they are now rest in peace. 

I cannot imagine myself holding onto someone who I love as they die slowly in front of me. A French couple went to the concert and the boyfriend was fatally shot and died while the girlfriend survived the tragic episode. Some couples were not so lucky and they died together at the scene. A lot  things hurt in life but losing your love ones is definitely one of the most painful experience anyone has to go through. I was in Paris two months ago and I could have been one of the victims who died in the concert hall or at one of the restaurants that the terrorists targeted. I could have been a passerby on my way back to the place I was staying at and got shot in the head.  All of this could have happened two months ago but it didn’t and I get to see the next day while many victims did not. 

I was very disappointed about something that happened last week and after hearing the story, my pain went away and I realize that there are bigger problems out there and my problems were small compared to what the family and the victims had to go through during the attack and the aftermath of it.   When something  bad happens, it puts everything in perspective and we come to realize what is important and what is not. 

The book The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook has been my to-go book lately and it gives solutions to the daily problems in life. Many readers would consider the problems as minor as they are not threatening or painful such as losing a love one but it can have a dire consequence if not taken the right action to fix it.  For instance, the book shows how to escape from quicksand, how to wrestle an alligator, and land a plane. We might laugh at some of the topics but the solutions are very practical and the problems can happen anywhere. But what happen if we run into a situation where there is no definite answer to a problem? There is no survival guide for the Paris attack. The terrorists came unexpectedly and there is no definite solution on how to manage the tragic episode.  It is good for us to be prepared for the future but many life occurrences are unexpected and there is no clear direction on how to deal with them.  This means we don’t know what will happen in the future so we have to focus on the presence and know that nothing is certain and all we have is today to enjoy it and to make a difference in the world.