Hearts on trees, Linwood Avenue, for March 15

Only three weeks ago, I was reflecting on the tenth anniversary of the February 22^nd, 2011, earthquake that devastated Christchurch and the adjoining Canterbury region.

Eight years and three weeks later, the terror attack on two Christchurch mosques was equally devastating, particularly for the immediate families and community of those who died or were severely injured, but also for the entire Christchurch and NZ communities.

Today, my thoughts are very much with the survivors and their families, and with the families of those whose loved ones were murdered at the mosques or did not survive their wounds. The pain and trauma and loss may lessen with time, but I suspect that it will always be part of their lives, as it will for both mosque communities: Linwood, and El Noor.

Today may be two years on, but two years is not a long time when lives have been ripped apart. In all likelihood, too, everything the affected families and communities are dealing with will have been compounded by Covid-19 and last year’s lockdown.

So yes, today my thoughts are very much centered on the individuals, families and communities most directly affected. My heart aches, too, for everything they have been through and must continue to endure: loss, grief, terror, physical and emotional pain, and post-traumatic stress.

Floral tributes near Linwood mosque

I hope, too, that the wider “we” of the Christchurch community and New Zealand society continue to support all those affected and also remain committed to doing all we can to ensure a similar atrocity never happens again.

Sometimes it can be hard to know what we can do, as ordinary people “serving” on the suburban rear lines, or in communities, whether large or small, a long way from Christchurch.

My view is that if we take time to remember and reflect, both on the events of March 15 and the humanity of those affected, particularly how we would feel in their place, that’s a start. Going forward, too, we can strive to keep our minds, hearts, and spirits open to all others in our society, and look for ways, however small, to give effect to the theme of the weekend’s National Remembrance Service: Ko Tatou, Tatou, We Are One.

In the same spirit as that theme, at such times I always find myself returning to the words from John Donne’s famous Meditation XVII. I believe they are equally relevant today, when reflecting upon the March 15 attack and its ramifications:

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

~ John Donne, 1572 – 1631