We Don’t Stop Living

I’ve never run a marathon. I would venture to guess that most Americans haven’t, either. But today, more than 23,000 people started running the Boston Marathon. Only about half of them actually finished. Not because they gave up, but because there is evil in the world.

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I do run an occasional 5K. Sometimes my kids come with me. As we watched coverage of today’s tragedy at the Boston Marathon, Demolition Man asked, “Mom, can we never go to a race again?

Even though I was pretty sure of the answer, I asked, “Why?”

“Because,” he continued, “someone might bomb it.”

“We don’t stop living,” I answered, “just because there are evil people in the world.”

Runners who had not finished the race were stopped before the Massachusetts Avenue overpass on Commonwealth Avenue after two explosions occurred near the finish line of the 117th Annual Boston Marathon in Boston, April 15, 2013.  (Yoon S. Byun/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Life is going to continually give you reasons to give up. And there are plenty of reasons or excuses to stop running. But to stop running or living because there is evil in the world, is to let evil win. Evil cannot win.

Two people died today, by the most recent official accounts. One of those killed was an 8-year old boy. Just like Demolition Man.

I’ve never run a marathon. I don’t know what it’s like to see the finish line while closing in on 26.2 miles with that determination to will rubbery legs to continue those last few yards. But today, we are all marathon runners. Today, we stand with solidarity, praying for the 132 people who were injured, for the families of the two people who died. Today, we cheer for the finishers. We cheer for those who started a race they never got to finish. We cheer for the people whose encouraging voices were lost in the din of a deadly explosion. We cheer for the first responders who rushed to the scene. We cheer for the men and women who tore off shirts and racing bibs to make tourniquets. We cheer for the runners who raced to hospitals and blood banks to donate blood.