Kris Jordan

I don’t know where to begin. I tried to wait until I had cooled down to talk about this issue, but in the latest Time Magazine there was an article on the London Bombings which brought me back to a somber state of emptiness.

London is my home. I lived there for a month. I rode the tube every day. It hurts. The disconnect I had from September 11th, having never been to New York, I don’t have here. It hurt then too, though, but this was different. When I first heard the news of London on the radio I felt as though everything which was under my skin shrank into nothingness. An abyss filled my body. I’ve never lost a close loved one before but the feeling must be similar.

Not only is London my home, but Bloomsbury is my home. I did not realize where the bombings occurred until reading Time today. As I looked at the map I came to realize two of the bombs went off in Bloomsbury. The most devestating of the underground bombs went off on the Piccadilly Line between Russell Square and King’s Cross. I rode this line every day. I could describe to you exactly how Russell Square station looks. It was the only station I returned to when I was in London again this summer. I went back to the Mentone Hotel which was where we lived. I just wanted to see it again. There was peace a month ago. Had I been there last Thursday I would have heard an explosion and felt the shaking of the bus bomb which went off at Tavistock Square, a block away from the hotel. Take a look at the map. Close enough to have heard the screams and smelled the burning. Close enough to have seen the death.

As I looked at this map, and read the article telling the story I had yet to hear completely, I cried. Not tears like I’ve cried before though, nor very many. But the few drops which escaped felt like pieces of my soul had condensed into the salt water departing from my eyes. It hurts.

My thoughts are with those in London who were killed and injured, with my relatives and friends who will continue to ride the tube to work every day, and with the people who thought this would accomplish something. I don’t understand why it had to happen. I can only hope that one day I will live in a world where love & peace are the only ways.