NOTRE DAME: WHAT DO YOU TEACH?

Notre Dame burns. On the evening of 15 April 2019, the news broadcast announces the dramatic news that a fire has broken out in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the first photos immediately spread across the web.

Notre Dame de Paris 15/04/2019
Notre Dame de Paris 15/04/2019

This image makes me very sad because the story loses a little piece of the heritage that I have not seen. Let’s try to think of these historical monuments that we all know because we have seen them in school books, current affairs magazines, films and even video games.

List them with me: Colosseum, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Chinese Wall, Christ the Redeemer of Rio, Machu Picchu, etc., and how many have survived world war, natural disasters and time.

Unfortunately, the fire at Notre Dame teaches us that they are not eternal, just like us.

I have not yet been to France but it is in my destinations to visit and there is also the Cathedral of Notre Dame that will no longer be as everyone knew it until last Monday.

I’ll tell you something similar:

In 2011 I was in Malta and I travelled all over the island including the smallest island of Gozo.

I still remember that day for the number of public transport taken to get to the Azure Window. A natural arch similar to a window on the sea and destination of a pilgrimage of two public buses and a ferry.

In March 2017 the arch collapsed and no longer exists due to a strong storm. When I heard about this news I felt a breath of relief because I had seen it and closing my eyes I can still remember that day and see it in front of me.

Azure Window Gozo Malta
Azure Window Gozo Malta

What does all this teach us?

We assume that there were, there are and there will be. How many times have we said “we’ll see” and then we have not done it? But things are not as eternal as we are. Do not say “we’ll see” anymore, but “go” because the world does not wait for us, the world lives and dies.

Call me Claire’s advice

Claire

Call me Chiara, the idea is to take you with me on my travels and share with you my passions: from hiking in the mountains to days of kitesurfing, from urban cities to forests and all surrounded by the delights of the world.

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