I recently went on a trip to visit my friend Jane in Christchurch. And while I had heard that the city was pretty damaged from last year’s earthquakes, I was not at all prepared for the reality of it. For some reason I just thought there’d be a lot of cracked walls and messed up roads. Maybe an empty lot or two. But my mental image didn’t even come close to the true picture of a devastated city.
However, despite all the physical damage wrought on Christchurch, its spirit of community seems to be thriving. Every place we visited was teeming with people. Jane told me that it wasn’t always like this. But I got the sense that any excuse to celebrate is now a welcome distraction from the ever-present visual sadness. In fact, nobody there seemed very sad at all, which gives me every confidence in the city’s resilience. I hope to return again one day to see Christchurch as it should be. Whole.
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