Thank you for this eloquent essay, Roger Cohen, and also for the verse -- sadly, so apt.
Let us console each other, far-flung aesthetes, historians & Europeans, Francophiles or simply lovers of human graces, peripatetic wanderers, the Zen-minded as well as the conservatively observant of all the traditions -- or none.
There are core ideas that matter more than the ephemera of fretfulness over workplace productivity, the ups-and-downs of personal health, and the quotidian concerns of any household, grand or modest.
In its agonizing fire, a mere old building that is no 'mere old building' at all shocked, I believe, much of the adult human population that is present & aware, into understanding exactly what the word 'Threat' means.
Climate change. Severe weather events. Political ineptitude. Corruption. Sudden war breaking out. Human indifference.
Tragic mishaps spiraling out of control.
This fire reminds us all, since apparently we need to be reminded, to stop taking anything for granted & to start working together (at least those of us who have that capacity & that benevolent intention) to prevent worse destruction, of anything we value that is a shared public asset.
As just one example, the US Constitution. And simple Truth.
7
America's equivalent is probably Yellowstone National Park - remember the fires of June-November 1988?
America's culture is a vexed interweaving of many threads of indigenous, Eurasian and African cultures. The alt-Right resists that reality, but the Founding Generation clearly understood that there was a different culture being formed here, and on foundations that were in tension with the intended structure to be built atop them.
Yellowstone is emblematic of a place where Americans sense themselves as most quintessentially American. Even though it is a natural "wilderness", it has been formed by the acts and omissions of the human hand, including of first peoples who long preceded the advent of Eurasian and African peoples to it. The 1988 fires were a testimony to that reality, and their consequences are taking generations to become obscure, long after all the readers here are dead.
Much of humanity lives in a God-plagued world where too many are ready to kill for and to die in His name. In churches, mosques and temples in many countries recitations of His words and those of His prophets are quoted endlessly to indoctrinate young children and the already indoctrinated, now adults, to believe in Him. It is the promise of so called everlasting life after death that is so appealing and so hard to relinquish. The challenge for humanity is to once and for all free itself from this dependence on a world of subservience to a mythical God while still leading lives of decency, humanity and compassion. In so doing, we will free our minds from these ancient religious shackles and ensure the victory of the human mind and spirit over superstition, arrogance and ignorance.
4
@Skeptical M
Hallelujah ! Praise be to the clear thinkers ! The meek get what’s left?
3
In our sadness and pain at the burning of Norte Dame, let’s not forget that right here at home 3 churches in Louisiana were deliberately set on fire by a racist arsonist within the last month.
Immense sums of money have already been raised for the reconstruction of Notte Dame. The Louisiana churches, home to generations of African American worshippers will not be so generously funded. Go Fund Me - Seventh District Baptist Church Fires St Landry.
3
This is all getting icky. Notre Dame has been neglected and ignored and now the inevitable has happened. Everyone’s feeling guilty and getting weepy too late. Anyway, really, it’s a second rate building full of nineteenth century tat. You want a masterpiece, go to Chartres. Let’s hope public and bureaucratic indifference hasn’t exposed that great building to possible destruction.
2
Last night I wrote a comment about ' compagnons " who built and will restore Notre Dame and the complexity lost...but the NYT did not publish it. I also wrote a little story about " la greve " . the gravel beach at the edge of the Seine on the side of Notre Dame. thst is where workers were waiting in the morning to be called for work at the church and it is the origin of the term "faire la greve " to go on strike, a notion so well known by Americans about France . But the NYT did not understand and did not publish it.
The news tonight in Paris are about the question that not enough 'compagnons " ( high qualified craftsmen in a corporation tradition dating from the Middle Ages - they have to produce a special unique object to prove their skills ) ) are being educated in the field of stone carving or carpentry framework because these fields are not demanded anymore. Fine cabinetry is the most known tradition followed . Not big carpentry . it is not used anymore.
1
April 17, 2019
Jung collective conscious wiki quotes
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”
* https://balancedachievement.com/grow-more/carl-jung-quotes/
JJA
1
My CEO was in Paris the first time in 1973, as a Carleton student visiting Notre Dame. Later she would give a course "Reading the Light in Gothic Cathedrals" at a midwest university. Roger Cohen caught the essence--this is a sanctuary, for the world. She is now raising funds for its renovation.
Why are you bringing up President Trump in this article. This is a terrible tragedy. You have made it political. Shame on you.
4
I was just on Ponant, a yacht leaving from Marseilles with what Henri-Levy might call “French Fascists”; those who ignore the upheaval and economic inequality surging in France and are scouring, in my case, the Middle East for oil, Egyptian tourism and shipping money.
Notre Dame is an architectural and transcendent masterpiece, a world treasure. I have personally been there dozens of times. But it is also a reminder, having pulled in half a billion dollars in the first forty eight hours for reconstruction, of how hollow it can sound when France is a Colonialist power and the Yellow Vests represent that very inequality that is shifting world power towards a Kleptocracy.
As an American, only five hundred thousand dollars were raised for African American Churches recently burnt by White Nationalists. Let us all put this unprecedented coverage in perspective.
This is my third unpublished comment.
2
Vive la France.
The stalwart French people will make it happen again
A lot of enormities concerning the Notre-Dame subject, written candidly and with the best intentions by a very decent author. Not uncommon in our times. The French Revolution was not "a case of mistaken identity" but a crime against God, and a genocidal action of a nation against itself. And it was not the first time in their history when the French did something like this; the other one is called "le massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy".
The centuries proved ecumenical. Time made the cathedral everyone’s, in France and beyond France. “A mine of memories,” said Claire Illouz, an artist born and raised in Paris. “For us all.”
http://www.translation.pk/french-translation.html
Wonderful sentiment by so many different people. The thought crossed my mind though that maybe we don't need to own something to love it. Notre-Dame does not "belong to the world" or even "l’humanité". It belongs to the French - as it should.
1
Isse Lazarus poem rewritten for the age of trump Give me people with dreams, that have skills and education they will bring, with a reasonable Low taxes they will create new businesses and employ thousands and reap the fruits of their hard Work. All I ask for all the prosperity that I will bring To my new country is not to have left wing progressive politicians convince the population that most of everything I work for should be taxed away. How easy it for far left politicians to create envy and the population and convince them they are owed a living
I am also in consensus that comments with negativity about this event are out.
And respect is DUE to the originals builders of Notre Dame and the French people.
A plea for respect is a MUST.
Yes we owe the ancients a lot. Many people/most ?? these days --without any techica todays l tools would """""not"""" be able to construct Notre Dame. I do not remember much about gothic architecture--but for an analogy please see below.
There is a basilica in Rome El Pantheon (I think). I have been there several times whose cupula could not be replicated in over 1400 years--I think.
As any structural engineer reading this knows--it requires a lot of technical knowledge. And perhaps I invite him/her to explain.
When I visit these ancient buildings--
they inspire in me awe, respect, admiration and a cosmic connection with these people who lived so far back.
2
@a rational european- we owe them nothing! Wars more wars, rape and murder, poverty, slavery. Checkout the bio of the Bishop who ordered the building of the Notre Dame
1
@a rational european
It is quite astonishing that these things must be said, and repeated, and repeated, and repeated...
I thank you so much for saying it, "Rational European" from Davis, CA -- a place I know and love!
Taking this opportunity to share that on YT you can find the France 24 channel, that operates with an English version (as well as a Spanish version), not to mention the original French.
To their great credit, they have been doing a fantastic job of delivering genuinely substantive content, with consultations from architects, mediaevalists, experts in stained-glass window cleaning and repair, art historians, intercut with spontaneous input from tourists as well (including quite a few Americans).
The unity, enthusiasm and resolve are quite infectious. You can find a few brief snippets there to soothe the soul and perhaps also to explain to those who don't quite understand why not rebuilding is simply not an option.
America is roughly 10% as old as French civilization. Would we not leap to rebuild Independence Hall, if, God forbid, some nightmare befell it?
Americans are donating to rebuild the burnt-out black churches that a racist arsonist destroyed. That, too, is the normal response to such a calamity.
The loss of human life is terrible to behold, but the destruction of beauty may be no less so.”
Actually it may even be more so. Case in point — the terrible loss of human life among desperate migrants/refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean in order to reach the safe shores of Europe has not moved people worldwide the way the accidental destruction of the beautiful Notre-Dame Cathedral has.
C’est la vie, right?
1
Roger Cohen is right that the burning and near destruction of the Notre-Dame cathedral seemed reflective of the perilous times facing democracy.
The initial reaction of Donald Trump was clumsy, as though he knew he was expected to say something but really didn’t care much. So, typically, Trump decided to act presidential by pretending some special expertise in stopping the blaze.
Frankly, some of us were relieved. We thought Donald Trump’s warped state of mind would lead him to suggest arson by jihadists had caused the fire.
A man perfectly willing to start a war to distract public attention from the legal and political problems he faces in Washington would not hesitate to make Our Lady of Paris his anti-Muslim Reichstag.
Watching a magnificent piece of work like Notre-Dame Cathedral was just surreal. French or not, Christian, Muslim or atheist, worldly or parochial, it was just incredibly sad to witness the destruction of something so beautiful and so old.
Needless to say, I was truly happy to hear that the stone structure and the bell towers were saved along with other artifacts. And, of course, I am glad to hear that a whopping 1 billion dollars has been raised in just 24 hours to rebuild that fine Cathedral. Isn't it funny, though, or perhaps just interesting that millionaires and billionaires alike don't make the same efforts to help the most vulnerable members of society?
It's a topic exploring, Mr. Cohen.
Do they simply view non-aesthetic crises as the natural 'domain' of government and non-profit bodies? Are the leading donors merely posturing? Are they being opportunistic? Is there some sort of a tax loophole that will allow them to recoup their donations?
2
@Helina
There are almost 8 billion people on this planet. Roughly half, according to official statistics as published by the UN, are living in bleak poverty.
We are caging, confining & dispersing into the unknown the young children of desperately poor Central American families trying to escape extreme poverty -- the kind that kills with famine, disease, gang violence.
Approximately 5% of the human population today is trapped in conflict zones, especially within the African continent. As we have seen again & again, our own government contributes to this conflict. The current White House even vetoed attempts by Congress to reduce US profiteering from the horrors of Yemen. That is just 1 example.
Under the circumstances, we have no business attacking the philanthropic decisions of others when they enter the public domain. We don't know how many other acts of charity they might be engaging in.
Are you?
If you want less poverty in the world, there has to be less war, less indifference to the needy, more investment in education, less racism & less sexism. It's a huge ask. People as wealthy as M & B Gates are making a dent in the toll of human suffering. But to imagine private efforts, even by the wealthiest of families, are going to be able to solve the plight of the millions trapped in Yemen, or Syria, or Libya, or Eastern Ukraine, or Crimea is wishful thinking.
In the US, to help our poor, we must 1st rescue our own system, that is being literally torn from our grasp.
France's loss is also the world's, because like the works of Shakespeare, or the music of Bach, Notre Dame represents humanity's ability to create a thing of beauty, and even more, a symbol of collaborative art. It reminds us that beauty is fragile, and that buildings are as fragile as we are.
This is one of those times we are a global community; we have shared a strange, terrible event that none of us will ever forget. The world will contribute to rebuilding the cathedral, I'm sure, and a hundred years from now people will probably think the Notre Dame of their time always looked that way, and will always stand, just as we did until it didn't. That's how it goes.
At best, this shocking event is a chance to come together and renew as we grieve a burned-out building that was almost gone, and that meant more to us than we could possibly realize.
3
Thank you for this column. It is true that Notre Dame holds a very special place for all French, catholics, or not. I recall that the bells of Notre Dame rang for the victims of Charlie Hebdo who were the most anticlerical cartoonists ever and that it was a moment of unity and emotion. As a French citizen living in the US for 25 years, I watched the fire on cnn from an hotel room in TX and fought back tears all afternoon. I spoke with dear friends who were on the waterfront in Paris and as it was the case for 9/11 the reality sunk in only the next morning.
5
Thank you Roger Cohen. Your beautiful words express what so many of us feel. Vive la France!
1
800 years! Construction was started and finished before Europe even knew of the new world, before there were any tomatoes in Italian food, before Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, or Michelangelo sculpted David. Before Newton unlocked the secrets of motion and Einstein corrected him. Before there was a printing press that could let us know about any of it.
In this age of forks and spoons that last half an hour, shoes that last barely a year, computers that last barely two, can we fathom building something that will last 800 years?
How is it that a cathedral built in the 12th century is still grand and glorious but my kitchen remodeled in the 2000s is already out of style?
I truly believe that much of what ails society can be fixed when we learn to live better. When we learn to appreciate things of true quality that last. When we live in walkable, urban communities with wonderful schools and communal spaces. When we eat fresh food grown in local communities. When mindfulness becomes a part of us and not just a power yoga class on the way home from work. When we learn that at the end death comes anyway and no doctor can change that.
When our neighborhoods are anchored by Notre Dame instead of Wal-Mart...
A fine wine, a 12th century cathedral...the good things only get better with age. When life is well lived, it generally gets better with age too.
7
A very respectful and well-written article by Mr. Cohen. But isn't there some limit, in terms of quantity or quality, to how many "philes" one can be? He seems to be a Francophile, an Anglophile, a Europhile and an Americophile. I wonder if the lovely cultural icons, like Notre-Dame, could have been products of societies that embraced other cultures like their own. As much as we might like the idea of free love, for example, there are some trade-offs to consider (sooner than later, ideally). IMO, our new appreciation for French cultural heritage might help us advance, like the yellow jackets, beyond the vilification of "nationalism" and the celebration of globalization.
1
Notre Dame de Paris is an iconic jewel of civilization, and deserves every penny it needs to rebuild it and keep it safe. But an even greater treasure is a gorgeous little blue planet in an obscure neighborhood of the Milky Way Galaxy that has started to burn out of neglect.
Why can't the same sense of urgency be applied to saving our planet as we apply to saving Notre Dame? The response to the Notre Dame fire should be a metaphor for the response to our planetary crisis - urgent and determined, nothing less.
3
Dear Mr. Cohen: thank you again for a wonderful column. The first time we were in Notre Dame was in 1976, on a cold, sunny, winter day. Since then I've visited both the Cathedral and the Ile de la Cité many times along the years. I'm certain that Notre Dame will rise from the ashes. However I want to share with you and NYT readers a secret that lies at the end of the island (you've probably visited it). It's a small walled of garden where inside lies a museum that commemorates a prison that was used during World War Two to harbor "undesirables" before they were shipped off in the "Nuit et Brouillard" night trains to the concentration and execution camps. There were six categories of undesirables: Jews, Anarchists & Communists, Feeble Minded, Gypsies, and homosexuals (I forget the sixth). Each with his own category of sign or star. Several dozen thousand passed through this prison that was not more than 300 meters from the seat of the Archbishop of Paris. It's a quiet, and very disturbing place. It shows how people can "conveniently" ignore that what is happening meters from where they pray. I love Paris, I truly love Notre Dame, but forever this memory will be linked to this "secret" that lies at its end. At least modern France has commemorated this place, it's called "Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation". Thank you.
2
The picture that introduces this column is the first I've seen of the interior showing that most of the vaulted ceiling survives. It looks as if the transept ceiling failed, but that is the weakest portion as not being counterbrced by buttresses.
1
This paramount opinion boosts the newspaper and things good and valuable, like history, which is not morality but significance and understanding.
1
It's remarkable how many people - regardless of nationality, religion - have expressed the Notre Dame tragedy in personal terms: What the place meant to them, and all the memories that attach to it, even for people who have never seen the actual building.
My own entirely-secular relationship with the church began 55 years ago, in high school art history class. Notre Dame was the first thing I wanted to see when I finally got to Paris, 5 years later, and it has been on my agenda every time I've gone back. So many memories continue to touch on it, in different ways at different life moments.
For those who have connected with Notre Dame in some way, in short, it is not only part of who we are, but of who we have been.
Such a terrible loss has meaning in a way I find more troubling, though: far beyond the personal pain. Watching the inferno engulf one of the world's great treasures felt like a betrayal of those nearly a thousand years ago who created this miraculous structure, and entrusted it to us, through each subsequent generation.
Thanks to the unbelievable skill and bravery of French firefighters and so many others, much of the church has been saved.
Still, I sense that some very profound connection with these thin yet vibrant threads from the past has been severed here. We all loved Notre Dame, but we all allowed this to happen.
1
@Caroline. No, we all didn’t allow this to happen.
1
It’s Holy Week.
Holy Week commemorates the greatest tragedy in human history as caused by humans, the death of Christ.
But that tragedy was necessary for the greatest event ever to occur in human history, far exceeding that tragedy, the resurrection of Christ.
So, comes Holy Week, then comes Easter.
Notre Dame will be refurbished and better than it ever was.
And we realize that the love we have, in this instance, for culture, history and architecture, surges forth, and makes enduring the tragedy not just less than an annoyance, but the source of something positive that it completely and thoroughly eclipses the loss. Me move forward knowing the power of our mutual love, again in this case culture, history, and architecture, renders us an immense confidence in our future regarding culture, history and architecture.
So it is with most all things.
Before the death and resurrection of Jesus, his followers were some what note worthy for their cowardice, a very human aspect. After the death and resurrection of Jesus they moved forward with a confidence that changed the world and created the culture we now live in.
Truly a stunning coming of circle of the events this week, and forever in time.
1
Mr. Cohen’s soulful column today reminds me of why I read the N.Y. Times. Amidst the depth of understanding and analysis, comes a lump in the throat that leads me to the sources of renewal.
4
All of Western Civilization is undergoing monumental transformation that will render the future unrecognizable to the past. The West is in terminal decline and everyone, deep in their souls, knows it.
The fire at Notre Dame couldn't be a more apt metaphor for what's happening in real time, right now.
1
I have fought for human rights through building conservation as well for over fifty years. People forget how important our buildings are.
There is a very, very similar building for Eastern Europeans (often the West ignored and ignores the Eastern part!). The building is St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow medieval square (biggest in Europe). St Mary is about same time, took as long to build, is bigger and richer in historical events. It was one of 29,000 churches we conserved in Poland along with many remaining houses of worship for us Jews and other protestant groups. The East knows the importance of its building heritage.
I was born in Canada to Holocaust survivors who always told me to return to the Eastern Europe for history still lives there. I got my PhD and started and ran the largest human rights group for over 25 years. We also restored may houses of prayer and in total 27 major properties that go back 800 years. In the West we must learn from this. Notre-Dame has been asking for about $200 million for years for renovations and now that so much was lost, all of a sudden over one billion dollars has been pledged in a few days !
1
What a beautiful article. Thank you, Monsieur Cohen.
8
If Paris is indeed the city of light, then this beautiful structure on an island on the Seine River is its brightest, which now is in need of a restoration, along with the body of the Catholic church itself. Growing up in a small city I was mesmerized standing next to it, by its history in story, and the symbology of all that it stands for. What I remember best of that day occurred on our way out of the cathedral where we encountering one of the sisters collecting donations. We were so transfixed by this place we pooled up far more of a donation than we could afford, yet came away with the feeling that it was not nearly enough for what we had just experienced.
6
I am not a Christian but wept as I watched the cathedral burn. Everything we hold beautiful and dear is indeed so fragile. I wondered about the pace of the destruction too. So many things we are losing in this era of humankind do not engage us in their destruction as the rapid fire at Notre Dame. I speak of so many species and whole landscapes that we destroy daily, largely out of sight of glaring cameras and shocks to our conscience and souls. They need our attentions and care too. They too are as much a part of our truth and beauty as anything the hands of man can build and re-build as the splendor of Notre Dame. We all need to reconsider what we worship, who we are and, collectively, hope to become.
2
"It is also a story of European civilization."
That only hints at the underlying significance of "Our Lady of Paris". Beyond the stone and timber of her architectural magnificence, she is a dynamic manifestation of a deeper hunger of the human spirit: to unify in an embrace of an unseen better power. Regardless of its surface expressions (and conflicts), that hunger powers and defines the core architecture of human culture.
That is affirmed by a simple fact: the commitment of those who conceived, designed and embarked on her construction 900 years ago. The depth of their devotion is measured by their understanding that they would not live to see her physical completion but with the first stone of her foundation, they began a promise of fulfillment for hungering spirits - their own and for generations to follow.
And lest we forget, we're now seeing that the power of this great firestorm has only served to ignite a reawakening of reverence and resolve to restore the values that secure our bond and purpose as a people. Thus do we endure.
1
Thank you, thank you, Mr. Cohen.
In particular, thank you for your rendition of Emma Lazaru's poem. I also sympathize with you in your encounter with the agents when entering the US.
In in the last few weeks I have been reading with delight your columns. Your intimate knowledge of European culture, history is a delight to me.
I am a senior and I feel some anxiety now. I hope I can live to see Notre Dame finished.
I am a Francophile. I have been in France many, many times---starting in my early days with trips to Lourdes. I believe I have a French Basque great-great in my background.
Yes. Western Civilization owes a lot to France. The US owes the Statue of Liberty---among so any others--the Creole culture, etc. etc. etc. And it should be everyone's concern that this icon be restored.
Of course I speak French - je suis en train de le "maitriser" tout seule -
I will be reading your next columns with expectation.
2
Fabrice Luchini, an exceptional French stage actor, outstanding in declaiming La Fontaine among other French classic authors, was saying about the Notre-Dame fire: “One could almost think of a sign”. Not being himself a self-confessed believer, it shows how deep the impact of the fire has been among populations, in Paris, in France and overseas. It’s true that, the fact that the cathedral has been deeply wounded, but not destroyed, giving an opportunity to unify for a brillant reconstruction, and that it happened during the Holy Week is troubling, to say the least.
5
I wonder how many Trump supporters could appreciate this column – not the obvious criticisms of their leader, but the significance of European civilization. The uncharitable cynic in me imagines many of them think "the West" began when Jesus wrote the Constitution and the prosperity gospel.
2
As sad as this is it will be rebuilt to ever remain an icon of majestic beauty in our often ugly world and it wont get torn down for an ugly gaudy trump hotel.
2
Paris survived Hitler with a lot of help from their friends. But at least there were still friends to be had. Glad ND can be rebuilt. Solemn is how I would describe the inside. When they rebuilt let us hope the replication brings back that feeling.
2
“Vive la France”, “Vive la liberté”
3
All of this press coverage and world-wide attention for an inanimate object. That's what it is folks no matter what historical minutia you may want to conjure up. How to keep people disctracted from what's really important in their lives. Food, housing jobs, clean and safe living and working environment. Those sorts of things. If only the author and others, like Trump and the French President would Tweet or publicly state that it was terrible this building burned but we need to focus more on human problems and how to solve them. Much like the focus on building a border wall or the burning of the American flag at ptotests, time's a bieing wasted. How clever politicians and "religious leaders" are on their ability to deflect and divide to maintain the dreadful staus quo. I personal hope they tear that relic-from- the Stone Age, down.
2
@lou andrews
The fact that so many human beings have such powerful memories and feelings associated with Notre Dame elevates it (far) above the status of "inanimate object." In your logic, it would seem any work of art is just an "inanimate object." I see great art as just about the best humans can hope to achieve given our limited capacities.
40
@Clarice- the same can be said about people having "powerful memories and feelings" when an American(or any national flag for that matter) is burned. We see the results and responses usually from the far right or left fanatics. I think we can also label these people who get all choked up about a small(in the grand scheme of things) building that houses no one, down.
@lou andrews
What most differentiates humans from other beings is our creativity and the ability of art and religion to inspire the soul and fill the mind with insight. The reaction of Parisians to "the relic" burning demonstrates that this cathedral plays that role for many. I agree that more attention must be paid to providing for those citizens struggling, but to deny the power of history and the ability of "the relic" to make the lives of not only Parisians but many other fans globally is folly. Not to rebuild would be a tragedy.
14
“I don’t recall French civilization feeling so important in my lifetime. It’s what we have.”
Frankly, I don’t know how any individual - having a cursory knowledge of American history - might fail to recall how great a debt that the United States will always owe to France.
It wasn’t England that helped the Colonies revolt against their royal overlords. It wasn’t England that Thomas Jefferson secured the Louisiana Purchase from. And it wasn’t England that withstood Nazi occupation, and fostered a civilian resistance movement, without which D-Day would never have been.
81
@ubique we paid the debt on Omaha Beach.
My father was a CAPTAIN IN THE Air Force during WWII. He flew bombers over Berlin and was there during the freeing of Auschwitz. When France is, as America under Trump is, leaning towards a Kleptocracy, we certainly have the right to point out that $500,000,000 raised in 48 hours as opposed to half a million dollars raised for African American Churches burnt down by White Supremacists is democracy leaning towards Kleptocracy.
2
I listened to Greta Thunberg today address the EU parliament about the Climate Crisis. She spoke for the need for "cathedral thinking." I immediately thought of Notre Dame. I'd never heard the term before but I got the gist: the concept of people who dream beyond their own time. Thank you to the French people hundreds of years ago who dreamed up Notre Dame and built it for all of us who came after. And thank you for people like Greta Thunberg who are looking beyond our own time and actively addressing the Climate Crisis. In my opinion, we need more cathedral thinking and fast.
380
@J.
Yes! Cathedral thinking for climate change.
9
Notre Dame is gracious and holy because it is a material manifestation of the spiritual longings of humankind through nine centuries. It seems almost blasphemous to even mention Trump in this column. Trump is wholly ungracious and profanely vulgar. Never have I witness a public figure so entirely untouched by grace.
351
@Dissatisfied I can appreciate the idea of the cathedral as "a material manifestation of the spiritual longings of humankind through nine centuries."
However, that lofty posit does not stand to the test of human arrogance, desperation (to work at a difficult job), and the blind obedience to religion (reality tv of the time). I'd love to still believe in this fantasy that the architecture represents the holy. But in this case, no matter the import and beauty and loss... nope. It's just pure human hubris, while the real and holy wonder of Nature is cast aside and then burned at the stake.
2
President Trump does not need to be in this article.
2
A new museum next to the Statue of Liberty is to be inaugurated in May. Beyond our difficult times, beyond the vulgarity of many populist leaders, perhaps the fire of Notre Dame and the erection of this new museum can unite us in those democratic values that we cherish and share and that are so threatened today. Notre Dame and Dame Liberty to help us rise to the occasion: shape a more generous humanity, and protect our planet earth.
30
Roger Cohen has expressed the importance of France's civilization in this critical moment so exquisitely. I, too, remember the cool blue-lit interior of Notre Dame during the summer 1976 heat wave, the first time I visited, as well. And I, too, am revulsed by America's so-called president and his base attacks on the notion of "sanctuary."
The reimagining of Emma Lazarus' poem could not be more apt. (Nor more depressing for the horrid political truths it illuminates.)
I was struck by a comment I'd read yesterday that the U.S. should fund the rebuilding of Notre Dame's spire and present it to the French, in thanks for the Statue of Liberty. A beautiful thought--however I doubt the French would want to accept such a gift from a rogue nation like America.
Until we right our very wrong trajectory, all I can say is:
"Vive la France."
157
@MSPWEHO
I believe thanks for the Statue of Liberty has already been given with compound interest on the beaches of Normandy.
2
Thank you for this lovely tribute, Mr. Cohen. I too watched the footage of the burning cathedral with sadness and was so moved by the singing of familiar Catholic hymns on the sidewalks in Paris.
I was similarly unsettled and grieved by the demolition of the giant Buddhas in Afganistan by the Taliban four years ago, made worse by their deliberate destruction. But in each case, the loss of history, of beauty, and of an evocation of the sacred.
After the killings at the Pittsburgh synagogue last year, many of us gathered at a local synagogue to listen, pray, sing, and lament together. Though I am not Jewish, I felt at home there. The expression of spirit is in many ways universal.
116
“I don’t recall French civilization feeling so important in my lifetime.“
Oui! If there’s an upside to this tragedy, it’s that France’s commitment to civilization, and it’s resilience in the face of challenge , might serve to encourage the forces of reason to not give in now, when it is most needed. Vive la France.
179
Why isn't the NYT giving us links to donation sites for the cathedral?
1
NOTRE DAME DE PARIS Survived Hitler. But will it survive the monumental stupidity and ignorance of Trump. He will be remembered as the president of the US who advised sending firefighting airplanes to put the fire out, ignorant of the fact that the force of the fire retardants would destroy priceless works of art and holy objects faster than the fire itself. Trump's self is all because in his mind, nothing and no one else exists. In fact his presidency has become himself, placing the US in extreme jeopardy. Trump's policy initiatives are the stuff of mental patients stuffed into padded rooms, unable to control their aggression. His ignorance is soul curdling. Trump has reduced the presidency of the US, the most powerful job in the world, to the madcap notions of a demented ignoramus who sits all day in the Oval Office studying his sole source of information, Fox News, which fills his addled brain with lunatic fringe ideas. He then dictates tweets, unable to write them himself, that constitute all the presidential leadership of which he is capable. Trump is our anti-Notre Dame, having reduced the White House to his personal gambling parlor that has already bankrupted the nation morally and is on a steady path toward bankrupting the US by robbing the 99% of the funds necessary to their survival for the illicit enrichment of the already overly rich 1%. The top 1/10th% of the wealthy own 99% of the value of the US. The Washington Monument may fall from Trump's folly!
1
It was just wood. An old Japanese koan " an old baking pan the temple thrown away among the parsley"
the old lady will be rebuilt
“Thank you for this lovely essay, Mr. Cohen.”
2
Every burnt timber, every charred piece of limestone - ALL are relics to be presented to donors or sold to cover costs. Pieces of the WTC are all over the States as treasured icons. Phoenix, thy name is marketing.
1
In these moments of national catastrophes or national tragedy, we can realize how the things are precious but quickly fragile. Sometimes a single fuse can lit up a gigantic fire which destroys almost 900 years of history, and a part of civilisation.
Today, I measure that means patrimony and culture and to be lucky to visit castles, palaces, churches, cathedral museums. To know that can become precarious, I won't look anymore at the places which I visit like before with the same eyes.
Like said Jean-Paul Sartre as French people didn't feel as free when they were occupied by the nazis, because after that, they knew that means Freedom, because they were deprived of freedom. Nowadays, I know that the word culture means.
3
In 2015, The Times reported on the lack of progress in rebuilding the Washington Cathedral in DC, "the national house of prayer for all people," damaged in the 2011 earthquake. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/us/national-cathedrals-repair-work-finials-finance-and-faith.html
Will restoration of Notre Dame be completed before that of the DC cathedral? Note the French one is owned by the government and the US one by a private foundation. Both face secularism and financial collapse, as the dean said, “The culture that produced mainline Christianity is giving way to a new culture, and we need to figure out how to align ourselves with that culture.” Does that mean giving up God and religion and the real meaning of churches?
Roger, Oh! For the poet in thee.
(nobody updates better.)
Or maybe doG is just really, really angry right now....
Yes a comparison can be made between the accidental partial destruction of a great icon of Western Civilization and the gleeful dismemberment of the United States of America by Donald Trump and his ill educated supporters.
Notre Dame de Paris will rise from the ashes - yes - given time.
What will become of these United States of America? our Constitution? our democratic republic. We were, arguably the greatest national on Earth. What are we now? on our way to fast becoming the greatest fascist banana republic?
2
"The loss of human life is terrible to behold, but the destruction of beauty may be no less so." R. Cohen
"The greatest monument of art ever conceived cannot be ransomed with the tears of a single child." F. Dostoyevsky
12
Notre Dame, as structure,
has housed much.
Peoples. Nons. Believers. Nons. Objects. The objected to.
And so many, many...
Diverse as well as shared-sameness. Through the ages.
Ranging in both hidden and transparent.
Shamed and shameless.
Static, unchanged and dynamic.
Created, sustained and destroyed.
Rituals, rites, and ceremonies.
Sacred and secular norms. Values.
Ethics for living NOW,
derived from an
interpreted Gospeled THEN;
“compassed” for a more
menschlich TOMORROW.
A site wherein complacent and complicit mixed; engaging with flawed,
diverse, BEings.
You and the likes of me
Those alive and those trapped in the trauma of surviving. Daily.
Remembered and those not.
Notre Dame, a representational-sanctuary for continua of
sinful-saviors during conflicted times who only pause.
Timing-out. Momentarily; to recoup.
Not to redress. In order to time-in. Again.
Enabling sanctified dehumanization. Marginalization. Exclusion. Stigmatization.
In the name of…
Notre Dame, an example, and new metaphor, for absented-prevention.
Enabled by flaming human
“should have”-
“would-have”-
“could have,”
negligence and arrogance.
Notre Dame,an opportunity to choose to engage in making differences
which can make needed, sustainable differences for menschlichkeit for
both believers. And the many “nots.”
All around US.
Notre Dame, an invitation to each of US to personally-put-out the fires of violating…
Wherever each of US IS.
By choice. Or not.
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”—That is all
ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
John Keats
1820
From the Divine through Keats to mankind.
Notre Dame de Paris.
From the Divine through countless artisans and workers long gone but still speaking to mankind through the ages.
1
Merci, Monsieur Cohen.
2
It’s very interesting to be reading Nicholas Baker’s unflinching study of the entrenched depravity of the human spirit in his book “Human Smoke - The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization” at the same time what remains of Notre Dame is smoking. And at the same time, as Cohen’s poem suggests,Trump leads a national movement of lies, hate, bigotry, and avarice.
The near destruction of Notre Dame brings to mind that it was the darkest of humanity, the Fuhrer of the Nazis, who wanted its destruction.
Yet, with these harsh reminders, it is apparent that even with great knowledge of history we choose to repeat it.
It would be wonderful that we could see our planet and it’s inhabitants as being a great work of art equal to or greater than the church of Notre Dame, and equally worth saving.
1
Well done.
Notre Dame 'survived Hitler' because the French surrendered to the Nazis in order to save Paris. The 'beauty' of Paris survived because the city was not blitzed. Lest we forget.
1
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” John Keats wrote, and that is “all ye need to know.”
And to quote a much older Parisian, "the dull mind rises to the contemplation of the divine through that which is material", Abbot Suger, the builder of the first gothic church, St. Denis. It is the verticality of gothic cathedrals, the soaring height as a manifestation of spiritual aspiration, that makes them temples of the divine on earth; they are a place where God touches down and we can rise to meet Him.
Much was lost but so much more came out intact from the fire: the relics, the glorious rose windows as well as those in the chancel and ambulatory. The 14th c. Madonna and Child on a column at the crossing and the Descent from the Cross sculpture behind the altar. Even the copper rooster from atop the spire! Blessings to the firefighters who understood that the roof must be sacrificed to save the walls. Roofs can be rebuilt. She will not be the same; it is up to all of us to ensure that N-D remains that nexus of the human and the divine, the physical and the immaterial. The dull mind does rise to the contemplation of the divine through the senses and beauty; this church proves that many times over.
2
I work in the research laboratory which, in France, is mandated by the Ministry of Culture to work on the conservation of historic monuments, by studying them and to provide assistance for their restoration and preservation.
Monday evening and during the night from Monday to Tuesday, many of us slept badly, some of us not at all, others cried but everyone, absolutely everyone, feels an urgent need to get to work....some will probe the walls and the effects of fire and water on the stones, others will work on molten lead and the metallic elements that have been altered by the fire; some will carefully study the stained glass throughout the building, the fouling and alterations on the glass, their strength, the condition of the frames that support them; others will collect the huge documentation we have on this monument, records, plans, 3D captures, writings etc.. Many of our colleagues are already at work cleaning the parts and paints that were extracted from the nave during the fire to be transported to the Louvre, diagnosing the damage, cleaning the canvases, repairing what has been damaged; many of my colleagues have experience of these heritage wonders that were devastated by the fire, and the effects on the materials, including the tons of water used to overcome them.
To see this millenary structure go up in smoke is indescribable but our passion for this elegant lady gives us an incredible strength for the future, we are already starting to provide her with first aid.
5
Roger Cohen opines, " The loss of human life is terrible to behold, but the destruction of beauty may be no less so. "
And, never has a more wrong-minded sentence ever been crafted.
Nobody mourned the destruction of the Twin Towers, two magnificent examples of the modern skyscraper, because, after all...they were just buildings, and buildings can be rebuilt. But, you can't reconstitute a life lost in a building collapse due to a hurricane, or from the conflagration of an arson's torching, or from the aircraft that were repurposed to destroy symbolic edifices on 9/11.
Why not use the 100's of millions of dollars being pledged to rebuild Notre-Dame cathedral to address the real concerns that have been vocalized by the Yellow Vest protestors over the past many months, weekend after weekend after weekend? And, if the building so important, why not just let the Catholic Church open its vault of treasure to pay for a new roof?
2
A beautiful piece that echos my seeking shelter from the heat and the crowds of Paris in its beautiful, cool, hushed, stained glass lit interior. But WHY, why, why did you have to bring Donald Trump into the commentary?
IF all those expressing concern, r heartbroken about the fire in "l'Eglise de Notre Dame" actually attended church regularly and believed in the Gospel , then Christianity would be viewed as a dynamic religion,with the number of "fervents" on the rise, keeping par with the other 2 monotheistic faiths, Judaism and Islam. Instead, it is seen as effete, and number of followers is going down, with Christian places of worship decreasing. Compare the turn out for the mosque on 96th Street and Second Avenue on ajuma, day of prayer, with the number of pews empty at Saint John The Divine and it's no contest. Recall attending service at St.Stephens, Episcopalian, in PW a number of years ago on the night before Christmas and I saw barely 2 dozen fellow worshipers..Likewise for St. Peters of Alcantara on Middle Neck Road. What does this tell me except that Christianity as well as Western civilization is on the decline, that we r besieged, on the defensive, that we no longer believe, we Christians, in ourselves or in our faith.Roland Gaucher wrote decades ago that defeat begins in the mind and is then translated to the battlefield.That's us, grosso modo, and those who believe that Jesus Christ is our savior are dwindling in number.Who can gainsay such a gloomy forecast?
I had the same ominous feeling. Trump symbolizes a disrespect and lack of caring toward history, art, cultural values and spirituality in general. I think many cried to see it burning because the sight of it reflected the trauma Trump has inflicted on all of us.
3
Yes, in the burning of Notre Dame, I felt the dimming
of the yellow in the vests worn in recent months. Will
this be true? This is a potent moment, and it may be
Macron's. When we viscerally feel what is burning,
miracles can happen.
If the President made that connection, it would truly be a stupid error. Whatever President Macron’s faults, stupidity is not one of them. In 200 years, when the supposedly hot issues of 2019 are long gone or only seen in history servers, Notre Dame will be there. That should be his only message.
1
The beauty and rich history of Notre Dame seems tied its sacredness as a house or worship - and tied to a lot of taxpayer support. It seems that many world traveling Americans privileged to have been graced by Nortre Dame may need to reflect on whether our value of the separation of church and state (for example) should be projected onto other countries. It seems that the appreciation of cultural heritage may contradict the goal of globalized social values and "justice". Cohen may need to twist his pro-globalization/anti-nationalism posture to celebrate this parisian and french treasure that exists because of support from the Catholic church AND the french government, according to the will of their democracy.
1
The French taxpayers own Notre Dame. The Catholic Church is a tenant. The current cathedral of Paris is Sacre-Coeur, a few miles to the north from Notre Dame. The government took Notre Dame during the Revolution and never returned it. While the Church does conduct Mass there and I think you can get confessions, it is not a regular parish, to my knowledge.
1
@Michael Blazin
Interesting. I wonder what the terms of the lease agreement are like? I suppose they're more reasonable than if the leasees were Lutheran... or Hindu... or atheist. Since it's a predominantly Catholic country, such preferences by the government would probably be fine with the voters. I personally know in Austria there's little pretense of state and church separation. (On the other hand, it's a better place than America to be an atheist.)
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” John Keats wrote, and that is “all ye need to know.”
And to quote a much older Parisian, "the dull mind rises to the contemplation of the divine through that which is material", Abbot Suger, the builder of the first gothic cathedral, St. Denis. It is the verticality of gothic cathedrals, the soaring height as a manifestation of spiritual aspiration, that makes them temples of the divine on earth; they are a place where God touches down and we can rise to meet him.
Much was lost but so much more came out intact from the fire: the relics, the glorious rose windows as well as those in the chancel and ambulatory. The 14th c. Madonna and Child on a column at the crossing and the Descent from the Cross sculpture behind the altar. Even the copper rooster from atop the spire! Blessings to the firefighters who understood that the roof must be sacrificed to save the walls. Roofs can be rebuilt. She will not be the same; it is up to all of us to ensure that N-D remains that nexus of the human and the divine, the physical and the immaterial. The dull mind does rise to the contemplation of the divine through the senses and beauty; this church proves that many times over.
3
At least when Lady Diana died, when the media coverage became overkill, one could still say it was kind of merited. She was a nice person, and she was dead.
But the Notre Dame thing, the building is still largely intact, and it will get a much needed reconstruction, after 500 years.
I cannot say the event makes me happy, certainly not, but I am not so moved by this.
Even more so as the media coverage continues.
In the predominantly Roman Catholic France, the number of lapsed believers has been increasing in recent years. If the fire of Notre-Dame were perceived as a divine retribution for forgetting faith in a computerized and globalized society, people may find again the solace of the prayer and silent meditation under the vaults of the church.
1
I am an American who loves nearly everything French. And, I was lucky enough to have visited Paris many times many years ago. I cried when I saw Norte Dame burning and cringed at the way reporters here pronounced her name. I know this wonderful old gothic lady will be made all well again, but to see the gaping holes in the roof and the ashes piled on the pews is heart breaking...and sad because, if nothing else, so many future tourists will miss the joy of standing in the center aisle and looking up, up, up at the arches and rose windows.
3
Watching Notre Dame burn felt like watching our Western civilization itself in flames. It was particularly wrenching in the context of a Europe, an America and indeed a world in which the most basic of all human values are being put to the torch. Have we survived so much, as a species, only to end up destroying ourselves. As I did watching those good people sing, I actually wept as I read Roger Cohen's words. They rang so true.
6
Roger Cohen couldn't write these words if this amazing gem had not touched so many, many lives. My cousin's brilliant architect-daughter sent pictures of herself and her sister and cousin beaming their pretty faces in front of that magnificent structure One of my cousins, an art historian educated at Indiana University, was nearly speechless. With other members of a choir from my hometown college, my wife has in that magnificent space sung "O Magnum Mysterium," ( by a composer whose name I forget). A vast reach of humanity knows and cherishes this place, at the center of a civilization that is reeling from its own questions about who and what it is. People who ask questions like that will get answers. One surely came this week as we all realize that we never, never, never want to give up our best to one of the hideous four horsemen. Thank God those firefighters did not let it happen, and thanks to Roger Cohen for this memorial to life.
5
@David A. Lee
I am also an art historian, had the chance to sing in a choir in Notre-Dame, and wept as I watched it burn. I never imagined that the stone vaulting would have served as such a successful firewall protecting the sanctuary from the "forest fire"--literally between the vaulting and the roof. That the windows and so much of the interior survived is, to me, truly a Holy Week miracle.
6
If only we, as citizens of these United States, would look at this destruction and realize that this is what is happening to our Democracy. Notre Dame will be re-built, in many ways, sturdier than it was. I hope we can do so with our Democracy.
7
Tragedy for sure. Again trying to restore the past. Wouldn't it be great if all the billions donated to rebuilding instead would benefit the poor of the world. Humans can evolve and wish they would in order to save the planet rather than destroying their own nest in quick time. Humans can revel in nature's beauty if they survive. Please save the planet and not rebuild the good and bad deeds of the past.
2
Merci Roger ! If France has a spirit that I most especially love, it is its ability to help so many friends from across the world to feel "french" themselves through their love of the culture, of the many art expressions and more than anything of the lifestyle that define us. So, in thanking you for your kind words and graceful wishes, let me tell you, as I most willingly tell to all others who have a love for my country : France ? Call it yours, you are part of us !
3
The fragility of civilization indeed is what all witnessed in the burning of Notre Dame, a symbol of "endurance and rebirth."
How very meaningful to most of us here in this country is the comparison of the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazuus' words as timely, more timely perhaps now in light of all that we as a nation and people are enduring under the current administration. I entered one Christmas Eve and was struck by the utter simple beauty of the interior illuminated by candles and the mumbling of others. As writ here, it will be rebuilt. Thank you again, Roger Cohen, for your words.
4
What is not generally appreciated in the accounts of the fire is that it was largely the wooden roof alone that burned, not the interior because it was, for most of the 5-hour fire, protected by the domed ceiling. Just look at the pictures of the interior damage. It was localized to where roof timbers broke through parts of the ceiling dome. The rest of the structure did not experience the worst of the fire.
One of the consequences, again not discussed, is that the remains of the roof timbers and the melted lead sheathed tiles rest mostly on top of the domes over the interior. That's the existential risk right now, removing that debris and the loading it presents on the domed ceilings without risking the workers or collapsing the domes and possibly the walls.
In other words, it's not quite as bad as it first appeared. That's why five years is a reasonable estimate of what has to be done to make it safe for people to enter and use it again.
1
As a 21 year old student in the provence I visited
Notre Dame's gothic wonder. However it stands for me as the bulwark of medieval
learning in philosphy,theology,rhetoric and early science. Abelard,St Thomas....
Catholocism would be mirrored in any number
of the Eglise in Paris. St. Sulpice. St Chapelle.
St. Germaine ....but the cathedral school
and its argumentative medieval spirit would have been lost forever. A rebuild would cry out "save these walls" It is not just a tourist line on the itinerary.
3
800 years! — artisans, architects, workers, clergy, congregations, kings, revolution, emperors, wars, marriages, holidays, holy days, funerals, vigils — witness to, and surviving all of it. It is emphatically a part of "the nation's soul," beautiful and fragile — its patina is life itself. A source of continuity in troubled times. Notre-Dame is beloved.
Thank you for this lovely essay, Mr. Cohen.
271
@Brunella what a lovely comment.
19
What amazes me is how visceral it felt watching Notre-Dame consumed in flames right before my eyes. I have never been to Paris. I am not particularly religious. But the sight of something that old, like an ancient tree, mysteriously knowledgeable and aware, a witness through the centuries, being swept away as ash in the wind pulls the foundation out from under you.
How did it have this effect? And why?
The television cameras stayed fixed on the cathedral as the spire crashed down, reminiscent of 9/11. What a nightmare for the world to have to suddenly revisit.
Notre-Dame survived the conflicts of the Middle Ages, famine, plague, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and earth aflame during two world wars.
Only to succumb now, in this way?
It compels contemplation of what we really have in the end. We are so fragile and ephemeral. We can take nothing for granted. We must endeavor to be vigilant in taking care of what we have left.
We have democracies in peril and climate change threatening humanity across the globe. Where will the next fire be, and what will we lose?
We must sustain each other, or we are lost.
284
@Blue Moon
I love this , so beautifully said. I'm also not especially religious, but sitting in Notre Dame, listening to an organ concert while seeing the sun pour in through the rose windows, was a highly spiritual experience. It was 30 years ago, and I remember it like it was yesterday.
52
@Blue Moon. Thank you for your comment. It expresses the dilemmas of civilization beautifully. Perhaps this blaze will give us pause. Time to look clearly at the unfortunate choices we have made in the recent past and determine to reflect on the short time we have to tread this earth and do some good.
22
@Blue Moo
How true, we are so fragile, but oblivious until an event of this magnitude occurs...
Then we have to reflect, and think of something else than ourselves...
This moment will not last, so let us make the most of it.
Can we, for an instant, be tolerant, open and generous?
We must, before our worst instincts take over..
Thank you for this,
yours...
5
This beautiful piece by Mr. Cohen expresses my own sense of this horrible event. I love France not because it is perfect, but for how it has struggled to be a truthful expression of the fullness of human nature. It's art, it's revolution, it's struggle with religion. It is a nation that most beautifully captures the struggles I see of our last few centuries. When I travel there, it means so very much to me to see Liberty, Equality and Fraternity plastered all over the place as the national slogan. Not out of propaganda, but because they fought and overthrew their monarchy to achieve these slogans. Thank you Mr. Cohen, for this expressive piece that captures my own inner voices.
259
@Amy Windrope -- Yes, the French could teach Americans a lot abut patriotism. They manage to express theirs without it being a challenge to others, or to make themselves feel morally superior as Americans are wont to do. Their love of their country is purely that, nothing more needs to be said.
37
The French are nice people, but General and later President De Gaulle took a back seat to no one in arrogant defense of French Nationalism. He stood out even compared to people like General Patton and Field Marshal Montgomery. That is like Terry Bradshaw and Tom Brady saying this other guy has good stuff.
@Stevenz
Wait a second here... I will say something. Most Americans are not as crude and bombastic as commonly portrayed by the media. (Who, after all, are motivated to make their audience feel good about themselves). And if you adjust for education level we might even be a noble people! And most of the violent flag waiving is done as compensation for insecurities that few Europeans (and educated Americans) would ever have nor feel much sympathy toward. One thing I noticed from two decades in (western) Europe is that they are not as likely to assume things must be better elsewhere, as many Americans seem to.
But, I agree, we can learn a LOT from the French... and they could learn a few things from us. My son read me a meme last year: "The new French tanks have 14 gears -13 go in reverse and 1 goes forward in case the enemy attacks from behind."
1
So many commenters on these stories express views filtered through their cynicism about religion. (That America is a nation of Major League Cynics is not news.) They fail to recognise that many symbols start life as a particular thing, with a particular meaning, then transcend that meaning as history carries it along. Notre-Dame and Westminster Cathedral are two of the best examples of that.
But let's look at it from a strictly analytical point of view. If you actually visit Notre-Dame, you should be awed by its immensity and complexity, something accomplished in the 12th century without computers or even slide rules. Only a complete lack of historical understanding could leave you unimpressed.
It's a work of art that defies description. Isn't that enough? Thousands of crafts and trades people swarmed over this building for *two hundred years* to create a thing of magnificence for centuries of humanity. Even if we have no concept of that today, and we don't, can't we at least recognise that it was remarkable? *Especially* because it can't happen today.
Finally, even if you aren't religious, you can't look at this thing without realising that those people were. The ideas, design and fruition were the products of their divine inspiration. You may not share it, but it is intellectually and spiritually impoverished to not recognise the power of it in a very poor, violent, dark time in the history of our kind.
A little respect, please.
462
@Stevenz Well said. However, America is not the only nation of "Major League Cynics." I believe many people in France and elsewhere right now are re-examining the idea that divine inspiration has created many good things on this planet.
24
@Stevenz You expressed my thoughts perfectly. I wept for Notre-Dame yesterday not for any religious reasons, but because it is one of the world’s most glorious and beautiful works of art; a testament not only to the faith and technical ingenuity of its designers and those who laid and sculpted its stones but to the idea that man can be greater than our mortal selves.
As a lover of both art and history, the Notre-Dame holds a very special place in my heart, just as it does for millions of others; it really does belong to the world, and the world now stands with the French people in the determination to see Notre-Dame repaired, restored and made whole again. For all that I’ve studied it, I’ve not yet had the good fortune to visit, but on the glorious day when it once again opens its doors I plan to be there.
71
@Stevenz
But also, the High Middle Ages were a time of great achievements that created many of the foundations of the modern world. Historians no longer think of them exclusively as a dark middle period between the glories of Ancient Greece and Rome, and the Renaissance. You could also argue that if you don't share the "divine inspiration" of Notre Dame's creators, you share the legacy of their thoughts and ideas never-the-less. Medieval Europe, like our world day was a spectacular combination of high achievements and terrible suffering.
But I do concur with your plea for respect as well.
22
When I see the stained glass of the East End of Notre Dame still intact, still filling the Cathedral with multicolored light, I see hope. Throughout history renewal has risen out of the ashes of disaster. Is this a metaphor for all us who live in this troubled, mixed up, disaster driven world? I hope reconstruction will begin soon for all of us.
6
Yes, Statue of Liberty perhaps but I would argue our national parks such as Yosemite are truly the best monuments the United States have to offer and we need to protect them from human onslaught.
8
I am not religious, but I feel the burning of Notre Dame to portend the conflagration of human civilization's cathedral and the cathedral of Earth itself. No one is existentially "free." We are all congregated within the cathedral. I felt this so strongly in November, 1963, crowded with thousands inside Notre Dame to memorialize the assassinated young American president. I doubt humanity can see enough to "see."
3
Your citation of the line from Keats was well chosen.
2
Notre-Dame of Paris is a symbol that carries different meaning for different people. All interpretations are valid and worthwhile if written true to the author's experiences.
When I see Notre Dame of Paris, I am first struck by its immensity. The belfries loom over the isle and the surrounding riverbanks, and the details of its facades are so intricate as if to be indecipherable.
I then remember. Frenchmen of the 13th century looked upon the belfries of Notre-Dame. French Protestants of the 16th century looked upon the belfries too. Even starving French citizens of the 18th century looked upon the belfries.
I think the aforementioned Huguenots and sans-culottes would find this author's column absurd. They, like many of you, would ridicule the exploitation of the lower classes, the oppression of religions, and the staggering hypocrisy of the Ancien Regime.
There is blood in the stones of Notre-Dame, just as there is blood on the steps of the Hotel de Ville. Blood and misery inherently seep through every human creation.
Ask yourself: How much blood lies underneath our railroads? How much beneath the Black Hills National Forest?
Sneering helps no one. The dead do not think. Notre-Dame still stands as we do. I should like to look upon the cathedral again and remember. For me, the cathedral is made ever more beautiful by the injustices and sacrifices endured by those who came before. Notre-Dame is a window to our past; don't condemn her because you don't like the view.
4
Mr. Cohen:
You did not need to refer to the President at all in discussing this tragedy. He, his Tweets, and your feelings toward him are materially irrelevant to the matter at hand. Your extraneous remarks only serve to detract from contemplating its significance.
If you are unable to control yourself in such situations, I suggest that you consult your physician for suitable therapy.
3
French socialism burned an icon to benefit poor.
Yes we can do without the pyramides, the chinese wall, the Notre Dame etc. --- and remember what happened in China under the cultural reaolution.
Art is a neccesity for mankind, don´t ever forget. And money to help the poor - we certainly have, mr. Showell.
do not be naive.
@Brice Showell
1
Thank you, Mr Cohen, for this.
This is how I felt when I watched Notre Dame burn, from 2000 kms away ( I live in Andalusia). I come from a long line of atheists, but I was crying , as were my atheist children and siblings, when I saw the spire fall.
Notre Dame is much more than a church, and everybody I know feels the same sorrow.
I just wish we would be spared all those idiotic "Muslim conspiracy" nonsense, born from malignant fake news.
I also wish that those generous billionaires tycoons, after offering to save "Notre Dame de Paris", would now make a move to save "Les Misérables" who live in the same city.
Victor Hugo would like it too....
5
Mr. Cohen's obeisance to the universalizing character of Notre Dame appears to have looked past the Synagoga statue on its west façade - the one in which the forehead of a downcast woman representing the Jews is cinched by a snake. The crown at her feet and the broken staff in her hand require no exegesis; and she is meant to be contrasted with the Ecclesia statue nearby - a confident, upright, chalice-bearing woman attesting the theological triumph of the Christians. Ecumenism, anyone?
1
On June 17, 1242, church officials brought 24 wagons piled high with volumes of the Talmud, about 10,000 books in all - all known copies of the Talmud then in existence in France - to Paris’ Place de Greve, next to Notre Dame. There, they were publicly burned.
No further comment needed.
3
Beautifully written Roger. Thank you.
3
If only America's serious troubles could be remedied by dousing president Trump with flying water tankers.
6
“Notre-Dame survived Hitler”: this is an interesting way of stating that the French just gave Paris to the Germans without any fight.
5
Let’s not get carried away with the importance of “French civilization.” The parliament has just passed a tough new bill that makes it much more difficult to seek assylum. Muslim women can not wear veils on their faces. And the yellow vests have been staging violent protests on the streets of Paris for weeks. Yes, our president is a bully and a brute. But must every tragedy in life be blamed on him?
2
Apparently Notre Dame is like a Stradivarius violin--the wood will be very hard to replace and it's just as fragile as the 600 remaining instruments of that Italian violin maker. Your rewording of the Statue of Liberty poem starts with fake news--at the state level, rich people are not tax evaders. Jerry Brown often talked about how Calif. is too dependent on rich people and Silicon Valley for its taxes. Connecticut is in trouble because GE and Aetna left, along with a few hedge fund managers who were paying a lot of state tax. The John Dillinger gang fled one state and sought "sanctuary" in another state after a bank robbery. It's a part of Americana and Cohen probably feels that illegals are entitled to "sanctuary" places as well.
1
Why the yellow vests? They are the workers fighting for economic justice, correct? Some of the things you once fought for? And many of us good people supported you? Why not help them?
3
Roger is out of his mind if he thinks that rebuilding the cathedral of Notre Dame is going to unify France with all the disparate forces tearing it apart from the inside. Especially while Macron gave a tax break to corporations and the wealthy while raising them for everyone else- sound familiar?
How unified are we, almost nineteen years after 9/11 seemed to briefly bring this country together?
Oh and surely Roger knows that France expelled its Jews shortly before work on Notre Dame began, beating the Spanish and their Inquisition by several centuries and more closely paralleling their British neighbors across "la Manche."
Enough of these sappy columns about how France will magically pull together because of the loss of a Catholic church in a time when the country is more secular than ever. I'll bet francs or euros that just like 9/11, no such utopian coming together will occur when the dust settles.
2
I cannot stop the voice in the back of my mind screaming that maybe this is at least partial justice for some of the thousands of sexual assault victims worldwide. Perhaps there is a God after all.
1
Do you think, Daniel, that sexual abuse existed only in church? It existed even in the synagoges of N.Y. nobody protested until it came out that also boys (not only small girls) were victims. (I refer to an aricle in NYtimes): We had sexual abuse in Danish schools. I and my girlfriend were victims - and the teachers were never punished. They were married and had kids. You are not forced to go to church or synagoge. But in my country you are forced to go to scool!!! Don´t fool yourself, Daniel - be realistic. @Daniel
Let’s face it. If a conservative columnist used such a tragedy as a pretext to attack Obama, you’d all be saying what a classless move it was. And so it is.
4
Very nice little piece. Notre Dame will (obviously) be rebuilt. Meanwhile, back in American the Great, 3 churches in Louisiana --the state named after Louis the Sun King--are smoldering ruins, deliberately burnt by God-fearing oppressed white men.
5
What strikes me about the tragedy and the monumental outpouring of pledged $ to rebuild in response is that the Cathedral had asked for donations PRIOR to the fire to handle much needed repairs and renovations to the Cathedral which had been decaying before our very eyes. Oh would we have saved the Cathedral by paying attention to the history before the history was destroyed? In the US, our very own National Cathedral, a beautiful example itself, though with much less history, also is in need of funds for its repairs from an earthquake. Let's protect it as well. And let's take some of that $$ and apply it to rebuilding the African American churches also destroyed by fire which the president has ignored.
39
@flinng Why aren't these projects undertaken by the extremely wealthy Catholic Church? In what world do they need citizens, taxpayers, and patrons to fund this more than they already have by giving to their coffers already?
To say nothing of the moral failings of the institution at hand.
3
@Steve
I think Notre Dame has become an historical monument, beyond the Catholic church. France is a very secular country for the most part. Notre Dame is the soul and heart of all Paris. Westminster Abbey is not a religious shrine; it belongs to all the citizens of Britain. These are the public venues where important events take place, some religious, some not. Shakespeare was not religious, yet there is a stone tomb for him in Westminster Abbey.
3
@flinng
Maybe the neglect of these monuments serve as an analogy to the neglect of our Democratic ideals that most citizens and their Representatives in Congress used to uphold. Now these ideals are not only neglected, but in danger of being completely destroyed by our Leaders.
Maybe we should tend to this neglect first then tackle the National Cathedral
3
Maybe we are not as fragile as some think, and we should stop celebrating fragility.
Lukianoff and Haidt have written about our coddling society, and other agents have constantly promoted uncertainty and fear, so we should not be surprised by increasing paranoia.
But who should we strive to be like, modern American fragiles or the people of London during the Blitz? And like London, Notre Dame will be rebuilt in the spirit of resilience, not worry.
2
It truly saddens me that Roger Cohen has to imbue the tragedy of the Notre Dame blaze with the stink of American politics. It is completely irrelevant and a slap to the current trauma the French are undergoing.
17
@maroon1974
The destruction of Notre Dame in many ways is a reflection of what is happening in our country. I think it was fitting that Roger Cohen made the observations he did.
23
@Jean:
I agree that Roger's comments are appropriate, sensitive and eloquent, as always. Unfortunately the "stink of American politics" is pervasive and it provides a stark contrast to the unifying force resulting from the disaster in Paris.
10
@maroon1974 The stink of American politics wafted across to Paris when Trump offered to supply tanker planes to drop massive tons of water on Notre Dame, an action that would have collapsed the structure. Only a man enraptured by his own stable genius would make such an uninformed proposal.
2
I have been in tears from the moment I first saw the fires engulf my beloved Norte Dame. Of all the wonderful historic buildings in Paris Notre Dame truely is the heart of the city..
It was the first place I went to the first time I went to Paris in 1974, It was the first place I went to in Paris on my honeymoon in 1981.
I was fortunate to attended Sunday mass and climbed the narrow steep stairs to the top of the north tower to see the view of Paris from the north tower walkway and ring the main bell in the belfry. all wonderful and precious memories that have stayed with me all these years. I now know I will return again before I die once Notre Dame is restored and be able to walk in my own footsteps to see and experience walking in history once again. Notre Dame will Rise again that I am sure off.
4
I remember a time after 9/ll that we had that feeling of coming together here in the United States . Seeing the crowds together singing below the ruined façade of Notre Dame reminded me of that time. But --- now there is little hope of ever seeing that here again. I cannot remember a time since 1968 when the forces have resurfaced and the hate, vitriol, and disdain pours out. We have no leaders to bring us together and everything seems lost.
3
An aberrantly jarring final sentence, unpredicated and unsubstantiated, but a handsome thought as such things simply enter the mind as it focuses on inspiring ground. This was a very good piece, not irrelevant in its terse disposal of advice from the American government; and yet how like that utterly unnourished fount of condescension, to suggest how to accelerate destruction.
3
Thank you ! This article was needed as much as finding common ground and feelings reminding us the urgent claim of unity and solidarity despite differences.
7
Thank you, Roger Cohen. You really said it all. Thank heaven for France during this ugly time. We can all join together to restore Out Lady and bring love and beauty to the world.
8
Whatever it tells of historical identity and implications, in the first place it is a title of a battle between reason and belief. A struggle where and when Renaissance emerged. That is the value lost in Notre Dame on Monday. Condolence has to be paid to history of humanity not just France.
Condolence has to be extended over reason nowadays. That is for sorrow, a bit by bit buried under the hummers of recent technological habits. If you look in timing of Easter and of visitors shutdown, there must be a thought of a terrorism play, which may not be limited to blasts. As you know, they used to perform on the big occasions, everywhere. The underlying thesis is the hate of religion, any kind. Could be that terrorism is atheistic.
Personally, I believe Trump, the Masonic figure, signaled the fire in his rhetoric over the Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, citing the 9/11 attack.
1
Thank you for this article. In our seventies now, my wife and I made our first trip to Paris a year ago and attended Palm Sunday Mass in Notre Dame Cathedral. It was a beautiful and moving experience. And so, it was in disbelief and sadness that we watched the fire consume that sacred house of worship on Monday of this week. Our heart and prayers go out to the people of Paris and all of France.
9
A deeply moving and appropriate tribute to this magical - ineffable in fact - architectural and religious masterpiece. What shame I feel as an American for our ham-handed and ham-headed president. Even a complete neophyte, such as I, can see that simply dumping Trump-sized amounts of water on the fire would almost certainly have caused the delicate, buttressed walls and the towers of Notre Dame to collapse. Then again, he has an easy answer for everything; since he knows more about everything than anyone. Perhaps he was already envisioning a Trump Tower on the Ile de la Cite? As if the French would even countenance such a profanity.
13
Lutetia. Lutece. Parisii. Gauls. Romans.
It has always been pagan Paris - along the banks and on an island in the Seine - that has drawn me to it. Not the citadel celebrating the revealed wisdom of Judaeo-Christendom.
With this great disaster, we now measure everything in France from this point of departure - the nexus - Notre-Dame de Paris, which happens to be, coincidentally, on that island in the stream where the Romans built their campfires.
It is the anticlerical forces of reason and enlightenment, embracing republicanism and atheism - Voltaire, Diderot, Hugo, Zola, Sartre, Camus - that created Paris as The City of Light, not the dark vaults of Our Lady, however beautiful she is imagined to be...now prostrate, smoldering in ruins.
2
Our entrancement for things old is always fascinating to behold. Do you know why the architects of Norte Dame used oak beams? Because it was the best they had. Do you think if they'd had ultra high carbon I beams, they wouldn't have used ultra high carbon I beams? They used what they had at the time and would never have dreamed that someone in the future would be sad at using something better. They built the very best they could at the time. Duh. Let's imitate that.
3
To all those who say N.-D. de Paris (and othet gothic cathedrals) was dark and gloomy....wrong, wrong, wrong.
The whole point of the gothic church was light, letting in the divine light. It was the great weight-bearing flying buttresses that allowed windows, often stained glass, to appear in what had been until then (structural integrity oblige) blind walls. The flying buttress is one of the most important inventions in the history of architecture. We moderns have a very jaded notion of natural light inside a building. Curtain walls let in a lot of light, sure, but I am still waiting for a curtain wall equivalent of even the most pedestrian gothic church. The worship of natural light in medieval cathedrals was the worship of God himself. Make no mistake about it, the South rose of N.-D. is a prayer, its transcendent beauty as close to god-essence as human endeavours have ever got. And this writer is an atheist, BTW.
17
@Denis Pelletier
Agreed! A thousand times over, agreed. I, too, am an atheist, but I have felt wonder and spirituality inside European cathedrals. They are magnificent and the beauty of their stained glass windows is stunning and uplifting to behold. They are the windows of the soul. Photos and videos can never do them justice. Those cathedrals smell of wax, incense, and snuffed out candles. They are sacred in themselves and need no other reason for being. They bring me to tears with their beauty, all accomplished by human endeavor with only hand tools and skill that was truly sublime.
6
The conflagration of Notre Dame seems to mirror the destruction of the environment throughout the world through pollution and greed. We still have some nice things left. We can save them. Notre Dame will be saved. Will the world in which it stands be saved as well?
3
How little attention and memory that the building receives adoration, not the person; that pledged wealth of donors receives press, not the call to store up riches in heaven; that a nation's house of culture is seen, not a house of worship for all nations. St. Paul said he was not ashamed of the Gospel. How little attention and memory, that stone and wood are precious, not the glory of the Lord, nor his mother, Notre Dame.
2
What we collectively create is often better than we are and represents the best in everyone. She'll be back and I hope foresight can stave off the next possibility of destruction. Carry on old girl.
3
Skip the philosophy, no sprinklers? What were they thinking? Divine intervention?
@Ryan retrofitting a building like that for sprinkler systems, easier said than done. It has lasted 'awhile'.
2
Lovely and poignant thoughts in this essay, marred only by references to Trump. Notre Dame represents the best of human creation and centuries of collective effort and aspirations. The current president of the USA represents the worst of humanity, a destroyer, a narcissist, a divisive and corrupt person. My hope is that the emotional reaction around the world to this fire will remind people that Trump is ephemeral and his sins will never be redeemed. However, we humans, like the cathedral itself, will outlive the worst among us. Trump will fade away, Notre Dame will not.
7
"The holiness struck me as inclusive. Notre-Dame is a sanctuary, in a time when the American president spits on sanctuaries and has considered, as punishment, dumping poor migrants in those cities that dare to call themselves by that name."
Passages such as this, which leap off the page, are what make Roger Cohen the NYT's finest writer. Thank you, Mr. Cohen. Thank you.
11
Yet I expect the Steve Bannons of the world to explain the devastation in biblical terms, the same way he calls Trump and "imperfect vessel" and has taken over an old Italian monastery to indoctrinate like-minded right-wing populists in the sham that is his desecration of Christianity. Gotta wonder if Bannon probably told Trump he was somehow chosen. Apparently, there are self-described Christians who believe this nonsense. I imagine Trump more a golden calf somehow luring the lost into apostasy.
2
If a tragedy like this were to befall the United States, our Head of State, Donald Trump, will be stage center, in the spotlights, his vulgarity and narcissism on display. He really can't help it, it is his nature.
Totally bereft of dignity and decency, he won't give any solace. He will probably scheme to somehow make money off the event. He really can't help it, it is his nature.
He will embarrass us. All the world will be reminded of the disgrace we have inflicted on ourselves. In January of 2021, things will get much better - they have to. I shudder at the thought of that scoundrel being reelected.
7
America, build a roof and not Trump's wall! America should be a cathedral for peace and unity.
7
Trump's air tanker recommendation wasn't "ignored," it was widely derided, appropriately. France gave the world culture, we gave the Ugly American.
6
It is a bit ethereal to see how many people the world over feel connected to Notre Dame and are rallying for her to recover from the destruction.
6
The rich should not rebuilt Notre-Dame but the people. The hundreds of millions pledged should go towards building communities that have gone up in “flames” and left their members destitute and hopeless.
3
Thank you for this photo.
1
We’ve long been bitten by the same bug Monsieur Cohen and France today, in its imperfections, is indeed a refuge. That said, anthropocentrisme is our undoing. One thousand oaks, now there is the real tragedy. Yes, it was the beginning of the end.
2
Beautiful. Thank you Roger.
5
‘Democratic Donors Revolt’ would remain only a “storm in the tea cup” till they choose an alternate to Sanders and a “program” for him. It appears, regardless of the Muller Report, the POTUS would complete his full term and be the GOP nominee in 2020!
Donors’ dislike of Sanders is not personal. Which of his programs do they dislike? Health Care, Free College Tuition, Infrastructure, Relief to tuition-debt burden or the necessary “Taxes on the Rich” to fund the programs? Perhaps all of them!
It would give an entirely new meaning to “bi-partisan,” if the Demo-donors’ candidate and POTUS choose the same Economic Platform! Going by POTUSs’ Tweeter Storm, he seems upset with “Fox” for not black-listing Sanders! Bi-partisan again, if the Democratic Establishment joins hands with POTUS?
French capitalism, militarism and racism exploited the lands, lives and natural resources of many nations and people.
And the French Catholic Church was often the tip of the spear of ethnic sectarian supremacist cleansing terrorism.
From Algeria to Cambodia to Haiti to Illinois to Indiana to Ivory Coast to Louisiana to Mali to Martinique to Niger to Quebec to Senegal to Tahiti to Vietnam there is an imperial French legacy of wasted blood and treasure.
There were no lives lost in this fire. This fire was an accident.
There was no great art lost in this fire. Notre-Dame is not the Louvre nor the Vatican nor the British Museum.
Notre-Dame is not the Dom at Koln nor West minster Abbey nor the 16th Street Baptist Church nor the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan nor the Templo Major.
Brazil is the most populous Catholic country on Earth. Except for Nigeria Brazil has the most people of Sub-Saharan African descent. Brazil is the most populous Portuguese speaking nation.
When the National Museum of Brazil burned where was the world outpouring of media and political compassion,concern and covearge?
See " The Wretched of the Earth" Frantz Fanon; " The Battle of Algiers" The Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
4
@Blackmamba
May I remind you that this cathedral was built centuries before France ventured in colonization.( It was built at a time when Europe was partially colonized by arabs..but that should not get in the way of your confused reasoning).
You may also need to remember that, until the renaissance all forms of art in europe were religious...and that museums like the Louvres are filled with religious treasures. I do not understand your distinction between museums and churches in that aspect.
6
@Blackmamba No country, no people is immune from such criticism, as long as it has had a leading role in history; as for saying that Notre Dame contained nothing precious lost in this fire, it is rather ignorance than serious argument...in fact, it is above all a pretext to write a diatribe against what France represents to you; to praise Westminster or Cologne Cathedral instead of Notre Dame on the pretext that the French are an imperialist, racist and quite despicable people, it probably means that the British and German peoples have erected magnificent monuments because they have not committed any of the acts you enumerate...
Or that Brazil is a great country and above all the human baseness you describe, but it is just one example among many others...
Otherwise, it is interesting to mention the Battle of Algiers and the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, I confess, to my great shame, that I did not make the connection with the fire of Notre-Dame but I promise to explore the issue.
3
As the enduring miracle of Notre Dame burned, our erstwhile President tweeted nonsense to the world, as if only he had "the answer" to this monumental, horrific disaster. Of course, he was totally wrong.
Nothing, it seems, is below this man. Nothing.
At a time when the entire United States government should be offering aid and succor to the French, he spews inanities.
To the suffering French, I say this; Trump is not us. He is not America.
At least I hope not....
8
“Democracy is fragile, like that spire. It is impossible today, it is dangerous, to ignore that.”
Because your preferred political party lost an election. One election. Really? Your ego is fragile. Democracy is fine.
4
A deeply moving memorial to Notre Dame de Paris. It was not the first Gothic cathedral I saw as a teenager. But the most majestic. And Paris was the first of the great European capitals I ever visited (and revisited many times). Permit me to add one footnote to Roger Cohen's thoughts because it also projects an arch to the present. "Notre Dame survived even Hitler, just." The "just" deserves clarification. Notre Dame and Paris survived because a General, persuaded by politicians and diplomats, had the courage to defy his insane Commander-in-Chief.
5
"It is also a story of European civilization." Wellll, in fact I found myself wondering throughout this column, How will migrants from the developing world make Notre-Dame their own? What about the climate refugees to come? How will Notre-Dame belong to *their* descendants?
How will their, and her, stories interlace in this new French epoch?
Notre-Dame will demand to belong to them, and they will demand to belong to her.
@Andrew if you can believe 'person on the street' interviews there are plenty of immigrant/descendants who are saddened by this event. Many of them Catholic, many of them not. Clearly more needs to be done in France to help immigrants (most of whom want to get to Britain, good luck with that) but in the meantime, we have our own issues here no?
2
I hope The Lady Of Paris will be reborn from her own ashes and help all nations unite for a higher purpose: tackling the Climate Change!
2
Sad event for the French and all who have been to Paris and seen the cathedral.
2
You don't know what you have until you lose it,in this case we almost lost a treasure of western civilization. I like that quote from Keats "Beauty is truth and truth is beauty"... contrary that Ugly is falsehoods and and a liar is ugly. Trump represents a greedy self obsessed bully and this is not the image most Americans want the world to see us as. Billionaires pledging 700 million$ quickly shows that the super rich can come to the task of saving beauty and restoring it. American billionaires can rescue the immigration crises at the border without the draconian mean spirited actions and words of Trump and his henchman AG Barr. Facilities ,judges and aid to the 3 countries exporting their folks living with fear and hunger ,a Marshal Plan a private /public project to rescue all 4 countries caught up in spiral which is not helped with hateful rhetoric spewed by our Divider and chief.
1
Trump and Notre Dame should never be mentioned together. The first is obscene; the second sublime.
5
As an architectural and cultural/historical touchstone, I get that it's a veritable tragedy to have Notre Dame de Paris burn to the core. It really is sad in a materialistic way and in its destruction of physical history. However, as it also stood as testament to the extremist Catholic religion, to colonial abuse justified in the name of "God," and the ransacking of countless villages across the former french Imperialist dynasty, I am not much convinced of the significance. There are millions of indigenous people whose lives were torn asunder by the same arrogant belief in symbolism. There are French people who suffer at the hands of extremist Muslim immigrants; there are innocent Muslims who suffer at the hands of extremist Christians. Ignorance and symbolism is abused at every turn.
Meanwhile the planet itself is burning to cinders from abuse, but doesn't get so many candles and flowers. What's next in the NYT front pages? A eulogy for the lost ghost of Santa Claus?
1
"Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". To me that catherdral is ugly. So it burned- partially, too many real problems to get upset about. Yet so many think the end of France has happened. The President of France said he hoped that this tragedy would bring a divided country back together. Is he serious? Is France that pathetic to need a damaged relic to bring people together? Couldn't think of another way or have another idea to bring the country together? Geez.. a sad testiment of the cluelessness of human beings.
I cannot even think of a comparison to what this loss is to our civilization. The beauty, the will to create by hand such a structure, the engineering involved, all the hand cutting of stone, transporting all the stone, the artisans and guilds creating works of beauty, and as you say reaching for something higher than yourself- that is a universal desire and it is immediately conveyed when you enter Notre Dame. We went to the moon- that was our masterpiece. Look at what they did when there was no electricity, no earth moving vehicles- It's a staggering and breathtaking achievement of humankind. It is a masterpiece. If they can rebuild, the French will do it right- I have no doubt
4
I have stood inside Notre Dame twice in my lifetime. Once having just graduated college on a choir tour and once much later on a European trip with my wife.
On both occasions it was the solace I felt like an enveloping cloak more than anything else. I understood the power of Charles Laughton's portrayal of Hugo's Quasimodo bellowing "Sanctuary!" from the bell tower.
A building much like a family carries the spirit of all who have been sheltered by its enfolding arms through the years. A pray all of them--all of us--can help shoulder the load to help in the rebuilding of this mighty symbol of civilization.
8
Long after America has finished imploding, France will still be there, standing brightly as a beacon of light, hope and sanity.
3
One similarity between today and those two centuries of building almost 1,000 years ago. As with the original achievement, the reconstruction will be attributed to the wealthy who toss their money at it and to the historians and architects who meticulously scope out the details of the facsimile that will result.
The unnamed, unsung construction workers will once again make it happen. It is they who will raise Our Lady of Paris to its former glory and their many many names will be lost to history once again.
9
@Victor
You will have to read the children’s book, “Jack’s House”, published by Scholastic. After the house is built, Jack is pictured out back in the hammock, “This is Jack relaxing out back.” Turn the page and there is the puppy dog known as Max in his hard hat, “This is the dog who did all the work.”
1
No reason to bring Trump into this. An otherwise good piece gone astray. The fire at Notre Dame is a disaster and I feel as if a friend has died. I too have seen it in its glory and hope I get to see it again in my lifetime ....but I fear it will not be the same.
The real shame is the 100’s of millions of dollars now pledged to rebuild, could have been used to repair and preserve. So too those dollars could have been used to install fire prevention and safety devices. That’s the shame. A bit of forethought can go a long way.
Perhaps as our National Parks and other treasures rot from neglect, we as Americans can demand forward thinking on these issues before it’s too late. One can only look at the fire and see the result of inaction.
5
@J F Dulles
Pointing out Trump’s every outrage, every vapid narcissistic inanity, every ignorant boast, every demeaning and angry tweet, may never budge a single Trump supporter, but I favor keeping it up.
3
Thank you for this lovely meditation on the history and beauty and soul of Notre Dame and of the people of France and those who love France.
11
An empathetic essay about a great historic building, but I remain distraught by the French authorities' negligence in protecting the Notre Dame. Why, oh why, were they so lax? Why no sprinkler system, no fire walls, no extensive fire watch? This is the 21st century, It's unforgivable to take such risks with historic heritage in this day and age, when there's been extensive evidence, even in France, that restorations often result in fires. For a nation that prides itself on its Enlightenment legacy, this strikes me as exceedingly odd, not to say unfortunate, as we could witness on Monday.
3
I go to a church built by the Amish in the shape of a barn. The Amish raised the church using traditional Amish methods including mortise and tenon joints hand wrought into the enormous oak beams that form the church's skeleton. Construction required a lot of people but nothing but tools that could fit in the human hand. Twenty years after the construction of the largest timber frame structure in the US, the external siding needed to be replaced. They replaced it with "fake" wood because it would be more resistant to the forces of nature and ultimately be less expensive. Still, it seems like a violation of the whole idea of creating an Amish barn to worship a savior born into humility. I realize that the French may choose to use modern materials to bring Notre Dame back to life. Still, it pulls at the heart strings a little to reconstruct an ancient icon with materials not found at its creation.
5
"Civilization is fragile. Democracy is fragile, like that spire. It is impossible today, it is dangerous, to ignore that. When a universal reference goes up in smoke, an abyss opens up."
Yes, Roger, but at least in France that abyss is undergoing a timeout, a cause to believe, the rebuilding of France's center of faith.
We have less hope now, as our president trashes icons, spitting on Lady Liberty, the symbol of freedom that attracted his forebears but he now wants closed off.
If Notre Dame can survive centuries of war and revolution, it will rise again, this time helped by a world that refuses to let spirituality and culture die.
I'm less sure, frankly, about Lady Liberty.
12
@ChristineMcM
You know, when you believe everything is about Trump, Trump has won.
2
I wonder what kind of business opportunities the restoration will spawn: apps of various nature, lego, webcams, virtual reality software, courses in restoration, stonework, building materials, carpentry and spire design, children's books and reissues of french literature (and Pillars of the Earth), museum exhibitions, boat tours, walking tours, culinary inspirations (flambé), films, TV series, cartoons and documentaries topped off by a new Disney animated feature. Haven't gotten the fashion angle yet.
The Our Lady renovation industrial complex is born.
3
@Celeste
The ‘renovation industrial complex’ is a huge employer here in france and a major generator of jobs and revenue courtesy of the tax payer.
2
@Celeste
Hmmmm, I thought irony was dead.
1
Given some say the craftsmanship no longer exists, maybe they can reimagine what remains and make it an outdoor worship area, connecting the stone with amazing iron work.
"I think, therefor I am".
Rene Descartes, the French philosopher, mathematician and scientist, was one of the men who sparked the Era of Enlightenment, aka Age of Reason, in Europe with just one sentence in the latter part of 17th century.
With a man at the helm of our government telling the French and the world that they should drop "water-bombs" like in forests on Notre-Dame, a means that would have caused the whole cathedral to be destroyed, though has a motto:
"I never think but of myself and thus you don't count".
4
"The loss of human life is terrible to behold, but the destruction of beauty may be no less so."
Tell this to a mother whose 21 year old daughter died. The destruction of any piece of stone, wood or art relic should not in any universe compare with the loss of a single life.
2
Well said, Roger Cohen. And an interesting point is made about European unity. As I watched the cathedral burn, I had strange, and admittedly not very logical, notion that something else might be going up in flames - the Brexit programme. This Thursday, church bells are to ring across England in solidarity with Notre Dame. Some ideal, deep, old and unifying, could be felt across Europe. I may be wrong but among all the expressions of grief at the fire in Paris, not a word was heard from the Brexiteers, Boris, Farage, Rees-Mogg, Aaron Banks.
14
@colombus You are so right!
I was in Canterbury during the last Christmas celebrations; in this cathedral as in Notre-Dame, it seems to me that the same spirit is breathing in the accomplishment of such masterpieces and a deep attachment, well beyond the religious, links us to these monuments through our respective countries. This makes you feel deeply European and very far from the Brexiteers in fact....
Here, in France, Notre-Dame is not only a monument or a cathedral, it is rather like a presence, a companion, a friend and we undoubtedly owe this feeling to all those who raised her, beautified, nurtured, celebrated, and even saved her like Victor Hugo.
The builders who covered Europe with cathedrals had no real borders, and I think that we share this common feeling beyond our borders thanks to them.
And, as far as England is concerned, the expression of their solidarity for what happened at Notre Dame, and they have done so on all the great occasions in recent years, illustrates much more deeply the bond that unites us in Europe than the withdrawal that tries to break us apart.
9
One of the first things to decide in the specification of the restoration of Notre-Dame is where the responsibilities lie? To what degree is it to the past (historical), present (cost, time), and future (maintenance).
In any event, it's clear that there will be two phases for this restoration, the most urgent one will be to roof the structure. Once the design is decided (and I think it should be an offsite steel framing structure brought to the work site (the plaza in front) by barge and aerial means (which would be the least disruptive). That could be accomplished fairly quickly.
Once the cathedral is roofed, the internal restoration can continue at a more measured pace where portions of it could be reopened for services while restoration continues.
As to Macron's goal of five years. That number is important because it will guide what technology is used. The more traditional, or even ancient technology that is used, the much longer and costly it will be.
As to where the church fits in to all this. Notre-Dame is owned by the state to which the church is a non-paying tenant whose responsibility is only for day-to-day upkeep.
Consequently, to put the rebuild in proper context for these times the emphasis must be on the secular role Notre-Dame plays in the economy of Paris and France.
5
For those attuned to your essay, this tragedy suggests a personal and collective examination of conscience and a re-commitment to hope, and a dedication to principles and practices that reflect what is best in humanity.
10
This is bordering on hagiography, idolatry. Notre Dame of Paris was built on the backs of the city's poorest and most neglected, for a far-from-blameless institution. It is indeed the triumph of civilization, but only one class of civilization over another. The precious art inside is only precious to certain segments of society who have had the funds and education to appreciate it. I'm not saying we shouldn't lament the partial destruction of a historical building, but I think we're desperately in need of relativization here. Symbols can be both benevolent and violent.
7
So easy to say. What do you suggest?
1
As a non-French European i am deeply touched by this misfortune. I cannot imagine a world without la cathedrale de notre dame. It represents all Europe stands for. And can be interpreted as a founding stone of civilisation.
Your words reflect exactly my feelings Roger. Thank you for that as i lack this eloquence of expression. But indeed, i can only hope that this fire represents the deepest trough of all the bad things happening around the world today. And that from hereon, mankind progresses further again towards enlightenment. And let “our lady” be the symbol of that.
11
Thank you so much for a beautiful and benevolent piece.
I live in France and have visited Notre Dame a hundred times, confident in its longevity and sheer indestructibility.
And, two days ago, there I was helpless, gaping, its magnificence burning, realizing for the first time how fragile it was...
Why was I so moved?
Because it is a testament to the greatness of human kind.
It took generations to build, the devoted labor of countless inspired craftsmen...
Yes, it was about faith, but also hope and brotherhood.
To see her burn was thus so painful.
Surely we can resore Notre Dame and we must.
She represents the essence of the French,
what we can accomplish when we want to, and have decided
that there are more important things than ourselves...
Let us be worthy of the task at hand...
yours
15
@Richard Boegner
"She represents the essence of the French".
To you as an American perhaps. But not to Rabelais, Montesquieu, Descartes, Voltaire, d'Holbach, Diderot, Balzac, Zola, Proust, Picasso.
4
Until Monday, if Americans thought at all about the Middle Ages, it involved Game of Thrones or as an epithet for a cruel fundamentalist religious or political movement. For more than a generation, we have depreciated the study of history as something frivolous, completely unrelated to what is really important, obtaining skills that lead to a job. As a consequence, history and the humanities have suffered in American educational institutions, with neglect growing the farther back one goes from the present.
Twenty years ago, while on a research trip to Kraków, I had the occasion to speak with a senior colleague at Jagiellonian University about medieval studies in Poland. She told me that under the communist regime, the field almost died out because of neglect. In our society, it isn’t political hostility but rather something much more mundane, the elevation of the material over the spiritual, of the present over the past, of the individual over society. Much as I would like to think that the terrible tragedy of Notre Dame will reawaken American sensibilities to the cultural heritage that binds us together, I fear that as the smoke clears and the debris is carted away, we will all go back to our busy lives with little room for the past.
12
@Ockham9
I sympathize with your angle, but can't agree that history has been neglected in favor of the present. History is appropriated for whatever ends different sets of actors have in the present, and it's not always accurate history. Much of history is also completely undesirable. We need to choose the better history and allow it to help us inform the present. 600 million euros are much better spent, for instance, on France's struggling underclasses. The history of French bourgeois preference for arts over humanity is all to prevalent.
5
@Ockham9 Even more worrying is the de-emphasis of civics lessons. Are U.S. students taught, these days, about the Constitution? Or whether we should retain democracy as opposed to replacing it with an all powerful strong man ruler? And what ever happened to science and math education? Why does the U.S. rank so low in education (and even literacy) in the OECD countries?
2
@American what do you mean 'undesireable'. You can't pick and choose what part of the story is important, although you can pick which version you want, unfortunately. If France is only interested in arts over its underclass, explain why their healthcare system is better than that in the United States..
1
I would recommend Ken Follett's "The Pillars of the Earth" (1989), a historical novel focusing on the political and religious intrigues behind the construction of a cathedral in the fictional twelfth-century English town of Kingsbridge--about the same time that Notre-Dame was erected.
Roger Cohen's piece is an eloquent paean to the powers of the human spirit and ingenuity that Notre-Dame embodies.
The only off-note is Cohen's snide reimagining of Lazarus's celebratory poem. Not the right time or place.
Think Wordsworth's "embers" and Shelley's "ashes and sparks," which riff on Milton and the sacred symbolism of the Phoenix.
Is there any doubt that Notre-Dame will rise and endure, yet once more?
9
@Andrew Shin
I agree, the Pillars of the Earth is a fascinating book about culture of the Middle Ages.it's still in my book shelves and I'll read it again now that you mentioned it.
1
“The French president was dignified, a reminder of the unifying power of dignity …”
A beautiful exercise in wishful thinking, yearning for days long gone when the gross rich did not monetise every blessed thing. The French President is a little man, in all ways including physical stature. He is a member of the super rich, the nomenklature, in exactly the same way as President Trump. Macron’s style is different, that is all, but his heart is with his riches.
The ‘unifying power of dignity’ is not evident in the days of the Yellow Vests – the precursors perhaps of a second French Revolution when the brutally marginalised and downtrodden will again sweep away the trappings of wealth. Wealth speaks with many tongues, but it never changes its gross appetites.
The resolution of today's troubles shall come from the defeat of the Corporate Welfare State. Then may be the time for the populace to rebuild Notre Dame and celebrate the unifying power of dignity!
3
Like most major events, this tragic fire will be a kind of Rorschach test for observers and pundits alike. However, great tests of great ideas produce a more magnificent grandeur; the recommitment of France to Liberty, Equality, Fraternity will be echoed no less by the voices of the ChristianIity's faithful, the newly baptized or those reaffirming their baptismal vows at the Great Vigil of Easter. Lest we forget Pesach, Jews will celebrate and afffirm the joyous elation of marching from slavery to freedom. It's likewise sure and certain many a Muslim tear was shed in response to the engulfing flames. Be of good cheer, Roger... This is the season of OVERCOMING.
5
It is hard to be reminded that everything we treasure will die one day, and more difficult still to witness its end. But while the meaning of love is fungible, and subject to the change, history is enduring, providing a shared place that soars across the ages, where silent stones and glass witness our moments, making a promise to the future to remember.
The present may burn, but it cannot destroy the past. Notre Dame, the mute and beautiful vessel of our hopes, will rise again.
6
I am not worried about the future of Notre Dame and the skills that will be needed to rebuild her in all her beauty; it will take time but she is so much a part of us, so present in our "national novel" that we will save her at all costs.
Some people think that we no longer have the know-how they had 1000 years ago, but there are many craftsmen who work and are trained for the restoration and maintenance of historical monuments in France, and in particular for the 154 cathedrals of the country, not to mention the tens of thousands of churches and multi-secular castles; they work on the same materials and some with techniques inherited from their predecessors. Even if this project will be extraordinary, we know how to do it, here and in our European neighbours. As in the Middle Ages, the large cathedral construction sites attracted specialists from all over Europe to participate in the construction, so it will be today. It is "simply" necessary to take the time to establish the right diagnosis, for the damage caused by the fire and the water pumped from the Seine that has been spilled over the entire building.
As Victor Hugo said in Notre-Dame de Paris:
"Man, the artist, the individual erase themselves on these great masses without an author's name; human intelligence is summed up and totalized there. Time is the architect, the people are the mason".
13
@zatoune Yes, the stone masonry skills are there but scattered. It is a slow craft. And there are issues of style. Gathering enough willing hands will be an interesting challenge. The repairs to York Minster after its fire give me some hope.
Add to this, there was a recent 3D lazer scan done of Notre Dame including many of the "behind the scenes" areas which should increase the planning time line. This argues for doing such scans of all the medieval cathedrals as a defense against future problems.
12
Lovely writing. We seem collectively suited to take for granted what is fragile, yet endures, until it does not.
13
Fire has been a constant threat to cathedrals ever since they were built. Notre Dame has come through before and will prosper from a serious rebuild. However, I am not sure that this situation will heal the rifts that have fractured France in recent years. Like the U.S. after 9/11, once the dust has settled the antagonists will take bring out the knives once again. I am also not so sure that a unifying "French civilization" is a working concept these days except for political factions that will bend the concept any way they wish. France is not immune to the viruses of nationalism and runaway capitalism that infect many other places. To think otherwise is to dishonor those in France who are struggling to have a decent life.
6
@V N Rajan.......There is not a cathedral , castle , mansion or any other great cultural monument anywhere on this earth that was not build with the blood , sweat and tears of lowly , expendable workers or slaves . That also is worthy of our reverence .
3
A fitting eulogy about a soul recalled in the face of destruction, but earlier taken for granted (forgotten?) beforehand, like forgotten notable persons in life who suddenly get effusive appreciations when they die. (I’ve read, the past day, of Parisians who have never visited Notre Dame, just part of the skyline.)
It’s good that Roger Cohen looks to the future of the EU—finds occasion to muse about more than reconstruction of Catholic splendor—in a world where no millions of euros or dollars pour forth for the United Nations to address hunger and disease and displacement, due to war and climate change. Money flows forth for a monument of humanity as stone sculpture in need of new wood.
I look at photos of the ashes and think about the soul of humanity, which is what cathedrals are for.
4
Great to see the rich finally stepping up for a change and doing something useful with their insane warchests.
France might have gotten a strange blessing in disguise with this tragedy, They are badly in need of a unifying symbol, this may transcend all ideological boundaries and be just what they need.
9
@Plennie Wingo You are aware, of course that those donations are tax-deductible?
8
An important element of civilization is religious tradition. We look upon this tragedy and it seems obvious to lament the loss of this beautiful architectural gem as an allegory of the decline of religious fervor and even awareness that has gripped modern France with its laïcité.
One can rebuild the shell of the building, and replaced its saved relics and art, but it is an empty gesture, if the love and underlying motivation are not present. One hopes that the emotions that the fire has generated will serve to remind the nation of the real patrimony that has been taken for granted!
6
@rochesterray ...and that element was the restriction of progress and human rights -
1
What is sad about this situation in my mind is that the craftsmanship that made this originally doesn’t exist anymore and in that respect is irreplaceable.
8
@Timothy Phillipsh
France is not the US. The craftsmanship never left. It’s also the country’s best salute to backward thinking.
2
Separate from all the political comments, Notre Dame is a beautiful Catholic Church. It is not my faith but I too was overwhelmed by its magnificence and otherworldliness.
13
It seems that the news have not reached the US that the 12 copper apostles from the roof, put there in 1856 by Violet Leduc, were just removed 4 days ago to be restored in Dordogne in the south west of France.
Also I feel a commitment to say that the schools for girls under the name Notre Dame present all over the US take their origin with the niece of the philosopher Michel de Montaigne who created the first legitimate schools for girls in France.
10
Aside from the wounded, but still standing, Nôtre Dame, France has been the repository of so much beauty down the centuries with its cathedrals, monuments, churches, châteaux, citadels, abbeys, cloisters, palaces, gardens, and museums, that whatever the political turmoil, I have no doubt that this country will continue to play its role as a beacon of “civilization” for centuries to come. The massive outpouring of grief and offers of support from around the world, after this tragic event have served as a reminder for all French citizens of the great responsibility they bear as the guardians of such an extraordinary humanist patrimony. Vive la France!
22
As he often does so well, Roger Cohen has dug deep in his heart and his experience to express that which so many of us struggle for the eloquence to express. Thank you, Mr Cohen.
44
I am thinking this just now, caught in fantasy: is it that the great cathedral all of a sudden up and decided to burn itself...as a protest. This cathedral that inspires so much love, wretched at all the hatred: self-destructing. At Easter.
In protest against all the nastiness, the selfishness, the incapacity to be truly civil and come to agreements, accept that under present circumstances it is not the whole cake that you will get, not even half, but a bite of cake. And be thankful for it.
So if the cathedral has a soul and if it has spoken, the rebuilding is going to have to be like rebuilding society, making amends to Notre Dame.
30
@pedroshaio A great post.
Thank you Sir for this beautiful and heartfelt article!
26
Facing magnificent celestial old buildings I always have ambivalent feelings imagining the sacrifices the people made, mostly willingly, and wonder if these are a monument to our ingenuity and accomplishment or our folly and ignorance. But it is certainly true how dull the modern cities would be without them.
7
Like a phoenix from the ashes, this Cathedral will rise again as a statement to French resilience! Viva la France!
14
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” What better examples of this are there than both Paris’ Notre-Dame and America’s gift from the French, the Statue of Liberty? One has stood watch over its own since medieval times; the other has greeted the tired and poor since the late 19th Century. Now one is a victim, almost destroyed; the other weeps over what her adopted country has become..one of hate, division, and bigotry. We see that France, in spite of recent troubles, is united in order to heal its icon of peace. Will our nation find the courage, the compassion, the love of each other and the other, to wipe away our Lady’s tears?
19
So some civilizations are better than others? Interesting.
6
@Shamrock
Yes, not just better, but far better, and French civilization is the most supreme, the beacon of the soul of mankind.
Which other civilization has produced not just Notre-Dame cathedral, but also foie gras, camembert, and champagne?
3
@Roo.bookaroo
I hope you are being sarcastic.
foie gras is gross, and even more gross is what they do to the ducks to get it.
Every civilization has produced wonderful soul-nourishing art and culture —and alcohol, probably. Sadly some have disappeared forever. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are still legendary, The Book of Kells is 300 years older than Notre Dame. It's all a matter of what a person considers "civilization".
@Shamrock
Yes, some are.
The tears of France will make the miracle to rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral.
5
Just as New York City is the world's capital, Notre Dame is the world's cathedral. We lament its injuries. However, as one of the writers in response to Cohen's moving piece points out, the cathedral long in need of expensive repairs to get it in shape for the next 800 years will really get them, thanks to this fire and the generous public response.
3
Catastrophes like the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris provide yet another example of the essential truth expressed in John Donne's humanitarian insight, 'no man is an island'. Were we able to keep this plain fact in mind even during times of plenty when we're so pleased to ascribe our individual good fortune to our fine qualities and the misery of others to their woeful shortcomings, humankind would be better fitted to fulfill its primary responsibility not to make Earth all but uninhabitable for future generations.
9
This beautiful essay is one to keep, along with the news reports that will form a part of Notre-Dame’s history.
All the world finds Notre-Dame de Paris beautiful and majestic; but, then, Notre-Dame is a compass point in all the world’s quest for beauty and majesty. It’s that way with so much of French culture. Here’s an excerpt from Montaigne’s essays (translated by J. M. Cohen):
“This great world, which some still reckon to be but one example of a whole genus, is the mirror into which we must look if we are to behold ourselves from the proper standpoint. In fact, I would have this be my pupil’s book. So many dispositions, sects, judgements, opinions, laws, and customs teach us to judge sanely of our own, and teach our understanding how to recognize its imperfections and natural weaknesses; which is no trivial lesson.”
Sixteenth-century France was not amused. Today, Montaigne’s impartial skepticism is the most implicit of tenets with Western-style intellectuals everywhere. His gentle wit and self-doubt remain to be widely emulated.
So easily does Montaigne’s casual wisdom cut through the intervening years that we may feel we’ve found a kindred spirit in the past, never stopping to think that we’ve found an ancestral one. Of course, as all the world knows, it’s like that with Shakespeare; and Shakespeare read Montaigne.
6
I am writing a book about a village in the French Alps that accidentally burned down nearly 140 years ago. There was no doubt the villagers, all of them, would rebuild, even as the eight-month winter descended on their charred ruins. And they did.
I have no doubt the French, in what has befallen Notre Dame cathedral, will do the same.
12
The age is not fragile at all. The age is all power . With the tax evaders settling their divorce at a greater arrangement than the other tax evaders offer to repair Notre Dame . Probably comparable to the crushing power money had in the middle ages. You could stay on the "greve " : the gravel on the side of Notre Dame and the Seine , which brought the expression "en greve " = on strike . But the difference is that modest workers , we called them " compagnons ", had the ability to create and produce the gift of beauty together . And I believe it is what we mourn in the destruction of Notre Dame and more precisely symbolically in the burning of the frame , the carpentry . This is what is lost for ever in the fire . Wood and hands together . We know we cannot recreate that ."La foret " was that idea : the idea of Complexity (of the forest )recreated up there by the hand of men as coverage . Couverture. Not just that it was the equivalent in quantity in trunks . In French we say " Forest " when we want to speak the complexity . Notre Dame is the reminder that this imaginary world is gone. And all the tax evaders can give Billions it will never replace that because they have killed the conscience of complexity in modest people.
15
Thank, Mr. Cohen, for this beautiful essay.
Many comments across these articles express sympathy for a modern ally, or distress over the misfortune of a place that people love to visit, or even a sense of debt to France for its support in our Revolutionary War.
For those of us from Louisiana, the relationship with France is more intimate and existential. We are the only state that is a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and has hosted the global convening for mayors of French-speaking cities.
We are also the only state that exclusively has its own French Consul General. The Louisiana Purchase did nothing to dissipate the bond between us. France stood by us after Hurricane Katrina even after our own country initially declined their offer of assistance. When France's help was accepted, it came with more understanding and investment than any other nation.
Despite the Louisiana Purchase, France has never ceded its connection and affection for us; and we shall always love her. Understand, then, that ours is a relationship of unqualified empathy, and we helplessly witnessed a member of our family be horrifically ravaged.
The support we pledge is not a question of debt; it is a matter of devotion. Louisiana is uniquely American, no doubt; but we would not be what we are without France. And to our French family: sachez qu'on apportera toute l'aide nécessaire à reconstruire la Cathédrale de Notre Dame à Paris et vos cœurs.
30
after the shock passed, and recalling my college course in french gothic architecture, i concluded that the fire is probably the best thing that has happened to this monument in a long time.
it has become a rather bizarre patchwork of repair and replacement, much of that work on the cheap, and whatever they were doing with flammables up in the rafters of medieval wood, they were fighting a losing battle.
not only will the old lady get a brand new roof ... and along the way teach modern workers what their confreres past could do with mere rope and resolve ... the corporations in corporatist france have plunged into the opportunity to appear civic minded and patriotic. i believe they have already pledged far greater contributions than the building, or the catholic church, could muster on its old reputation.
so dry your tears, ladies and gentlemen, the place will get a new roof, a new nave ceiling, and with the money left over much other good work besides.
15
The Notre Dame Cathedral has been prominently displayed in literature and movies throughout the years. One of the most exquisite scenes of Notre Dame is in the movie "Charade" when the boat is gliding along the Seine at night and it is beautifully illuminated brightly. It is shown in all its glory.
Notre Dame is probably the most recognizable houses of worship in the world today. It is beloved by the religious and admired by those who are not. There is certainly something for everyone to love. I personally love the stained glass windows and side altars. It is such a beautiful and peaceful respite from the busy streets of Paris. This is one of the most visited sites in Paris and for good reason. It is just magnificent and awe inspiring.
The fire was tragic but if one good thing has come out of this tragedy it is the wonderful publicity it rightly deserves. It has over 13 million visitors yearly and it will probably see those numbers increase significantly. People will now want to visit one of the most beautiful landmarks in the world. They will not be disappointed.
7
The Lady In The Harbor weeps bitter tears at the desolation in Paris as well as the degradation of democracy here in the land where she gave welcome to so many of our ancestors who sought liberty and freedom and the many who made this country truly great. Let us hope that those tears nourish a refusal of the hateful, divisive politics sadly prevalent in America and in parts of Europe today. Let us hope those tears will foster a spirit of intelligent compromise.
We do know her tears along with ours will raise Notre Dame from the ashes to glory again.
5
Thank you. The loveliest thing I have read in a long time.
Watching the cathedral burn was one of the most terrifying things I've ever seen, for all the reasons illuminated in this column - Notre Dame on fire is all the beauty in the world threatened, endangered.
The great walls held, just.
21
For me, seeing beauty burn is more terrible than seeing people die. All that lives dies, eventually. What makes human lives more important than the lives of animals is their capacity to transcend our biological existence through art, science, technology and civilization. Any culture that devalues beauty is doomed to self-destruction. The Taliban blowing up the great Buddha’s spelled the end of Afghanistan as a viable country, and the Afghan people’s current suffering is a restitution for this crime. I don’t mean it in a mystical sense but simply that a culture that destroys its artistic accomplishments commits a suicide as surely as a man blowing out his brains. But France is still alive. I believe the French people may find a new sense of vitality and purpose in rebuilding the great cathedral, and the country may emerge out of this disaster more unified, proud and self-aware than before.
24
The cover photo of this article is jarring. In part because the view of sunlight in the cathedral is... actually kind of beautiful.
Which brings to mind a possibly sacrilegious idea (architecturally speaking at least)... could the cathedral be restored in some way other than a full reproduction/restoration?
With massive SKYLIGHTS to highlight the stunning stonework bathed in sunlight? With modern glass, but shaped to match the historic vaults and roofing?
Regardless of how the restoration is done, it will still only be a facscimile if the original craftwork. Why not take this opportunity to marry the historic with cutting edge design?
Just a thought. I’m not French so I have no say in the matter.
13
@Matt
I was myself if more light could be let in through the new roof - but then maybe ND would not be so wonderfully cool in summer...
4
@Matt "Cutting edge design"...? Would you also have Daniel Libeskind or some other perpetrator of architectural desecration stab this cathedral with one of his stupid pointy shards or something in addition to the skylights? That's a cutting edge thing to do to old buildings, I hear. I'm sorry, but that'd be almost as awful as setting it on fire again. The thought of incorporating "cutting edge design" to preserve gaping open scars from a devastating accident makes my skin crawl.
It needs to be rebuilt as it was.
3
@Matt
I can understand you passing thought. But I hope that you do not really think that the stone vaults which hold Our Lady of Paris up should be replaced with glass and steel! The light through the stained glass would be washed out, and the sense of mystical envelopment would be lost in the nave below.
I have never recovered from what was done to the Louvre. The feeling and formality of the plaza was lost.
The ideology of art and architecture of the twentieth century have given us some of the ugliest and most jarring buildings the world has ever seen. It was meant to thumb a nose at the past. The conceit that we are so advanced that we can ignore the wisdom of the millennia and the Golden Mean has made for everything from the Bauhaus to Brutalist public buildings. Sadly, in many case, the ugliness was the point, turning art and beauty into an exercise in power, making the average person look at things which offend the eye, a form of enforced high-tech asceticism. And these were fads, and unloved by those other than their creators.
Our Lady of Paris cannot be the same. The feeling I had as a 19-year studying in France, climbing to the top of Notre Dame through passageways then trod for centuries cannot be replaced. But those who
oversee the reconstruction of Notre Dame should be careful not to give way to the impulse toward the vanity of the moment, and remember what made the
cathedral magical.
Glass and steel would be like carpet tile laid over a mosaic of gems!
3
I am inspired and in awe of this exquisite, comforting commentary. I so thank you.
17
Without the French, we wouldn't have prevailed in the war for independence. We repaid the debt in spades during the "Great War" and WWII. Let's continue our support with $$ to help the rebuilding.
Roger - great article but why the Trump bashing when we are trying to rally around an ally? Totally unnecessary in this case. Let's hold hands in unity.
6
@Bob Frame
I'm sure the French remain grateful for the help of all her allies in both world wars. But - at the risk of seeming curmudgeonly - America's contribution to WW1 can't be measured against the European effort. 100,000 US military dead is a tragedy but measured against France (1.4 million), British Empire (1.1 million) and a total military toll of 6.5 million, it's not 'in spades'.
@nolongeradoc
Without the intervention of the US money, materials and manpower in the end stages of WW1 there is little chance that Germany would have asked for an armistice in late 1918.
@Bob Frame
Trump is a significant symbol of what is wrong with society today, and his example should be pointed out anytime society is being discussed.
1
Roger -- if you don't know -- is an educated Englishman, who has lived in Paris, speaks French and was the first Times' columnist to question the Iraq invasion...
So I've been waiting for the Hamlets to finish to hear somebody like him or Adam Gopnik.
When the fire burst across our screens -- like the news that Kennedy had been shot -- I once again prayed it was only a wound.
In about 1845, my French great, great, grandfather prayed at Notre Dame until his sight returned. I told the usher that when I visited in 2004, and he said. "Yet so many have sight, but cannot see." (I think he meant W's gang)
Then a lady appeared stage right in blue and walked toward the priest. She began to sing and her voice rose up through the shafts of sunrise and filled the dome. It was a spiritual high note in an acoustic marvel.
But there are many exquisite churches in Paris and the French countryside, less known, not as symbolic, but wonderful. One in the mountains I loved had a priest famous for singing the mass. You had to get there early for a seat.
I only go to French churches and it's for the beauty.
Like Paris's beauty. The French people have not allowed their history to be bulldozed.
In 1945 on Liberation Day, when Nazi snipers still occupied the towers, six feet six DeGaulle stood above the crowd and proclaimed:
"Paris! France! Glorious! Eternalle!"
I have only seen Western Civilization, but for me, Paris and New York are the two greatest cities in the world.
11
The images of the cathedral at night were hauntingly reminiscent of a Caspar David Friedrich landscape.
1
Notre Dame, a monument to God, if you will, and to humankind and the possibilities that hum within our minds.
May she rise again in stunning, still unknown glory.
8
You are probably familiar, Mr. Cohen, with Edmund Burke's classic "Reflections on the French Revolution."
Mr. Burke was doubtful about that revolution from the get-go. Till the doubt hardened into loathing. Years later, he broke--decisively--with an old friend and ally. They disagreed about the French Revolution.
But why?
Because Burke--with all his prejudices and blind spots--was vividly alive to one central truth:
Things grow up. They take shape. Institutions grow up. Cultures develop. The current of life (so to speak) wears grooves, channels--and it flows in those grooves and channels.
That is true of any nation. There were--there are--things in virtually any nation of immemorial antiquity. We love them, respect them. They define us. We look at them--we see ourselves.
Which explains two things:
(1) Burke's abiding hatred and fear of a revolution that proposed (with ineffable self-confidence) to remake--everything. Start from scratch. Abolish the old norms, the old institutions--and yes!--
(2)--the old churches. Hence the visionaries of that revolution flinging themselves upon Notre Dame in an ecstasy of hatred. Abolish it! Get rid of it! Get rid of what it stands for!
And hence too--the spectacle of unbelievers standing in the streets, weeping--watching the flames engulf Notre Dame. It is part of them.
And they are part of it.
And they are all--unalterably and forever--part of France.
I wish them the best.
10
American liberty and democracy in this trumpian age are as fragile as life itself. France is the beloved heart of Europe. The symbolism of Notre-Dame de Paris burning last night was dire and awesome. No one was killed. Sacred relics were saved. The dignified young French President, Emmanuel Macron, promised us he will rebuild Notre-Dame.
Lady Liberty, the iconic French statue of American freedom in our harbor in New York, given to us by the French people, is under assault by our unfit and bigoted president.The Statue of Liberty, like Notre-Dame, has always been reassuring to the world. Today, our beacon of freedom and equality is being assaulted by dishonorable people in our White House.
America's life and society today are divided. What can we do to make America come together as the French came together as one last night in Paris, watching their beloved Cathedral de Notre-Dame in flames? We remember the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., "the fierce urgency of now!" his plea to give human rights to all our people. It's past time now for us to wake from the nightmare of American liberty burning under the worst president in our history.
17
A lot of good things (and a few bad) have been said and written after this sad event. Few of them have been as moving as this column
11
Notre Dame — the same cathedral we see today — was not much before Victor Hugo. His Hunchback was the PR guy for the Cathedral. Today, we overlook the fact that Notre Dame is pretty dark and pretty gloomy and belongs to a Church with an ugly history. I prefer lots of other buildings in lots of other places
There is no rule that you must worship Notre Dame just because everyone else does. Especially when everyone else is just following Victor Hugo. You can dismiss flying buttresses and gargoyles. They’re mostly just cheap novelties.
There’s no wisdom more gratifying to reject than accepted wisdom. St. Patrick’s is more cheery than Notre Dame and New York is more happening than Paris. The Seine is polluted and a cruise on the river is tacky. I’m going to tell you truth. If the Cathedral had burnt down, I’d have asked Victor Hugo to name his masterpiece for someplace more worthy.
1
@michjas no, no rule at all. But keep in mind, Notre Dame was 668 years old when Hugo's work helped revive it. Without Hugo, something else could have led a revival. St. Patrick's may be more cheerful, but Notre Dame is more storied. It was painful watching it burn and it will be a joy to see it rebuilt.
8
Tears watching Notre Dame burn.
Brave firefighters.
Stunned Parisians singing.
The cathedral is saved.
Hope wins and unites.
For an afternoon, our thoughts are with the people of Paris
And not focused on our daily misery of life under Trump.
12
France is civilization, in pomp and glory, in arts and letters, in wine and cuisine and in Diplomacy and Revolution. They will get thru this brutal disaster and emerge stronger, it’s what they do.
Bon Chance.
7
I visited the church in the winter of 1983. Parts were being rebuilt and walking around certain sections was dangerous. I was unimpressed at the "must-see" religious landmark as well as the city of Paris. For those who place such importance in its existence, I hope they're satisfied with a newer, safer and more fire resistant version of the original.
3
Gosh, please identify the monument in Clearwater, or the whole state of FL, that compares to ND. For that matter, name a city in your state that compares to Paris.
This is one more world icon (is it a World Heritage Site?) damaged or destroyed. At least damage to Notre-Dame was accidental and is fixable. Other, more deliberate destructions which have similarly moved me include:
The 1990 theft of 13 priceless paintings from the Gardner Museum in Boston (crime still unsolved, paintings still missing).
The Taliban's dynamiting of the Bamyan Buddhas in Afghanistan in 2001.
Seeing, firsthand in 1988, the bare outlines of the Church of our Lady in Dresden, destroyed in the 1945 Allied firebombing of Dresden. 43 years later, it was still a shell.
Our Lady of Dresden was later rebuilt. So too will Notre-Dame be rebuilt.
The creation of objects show humanity at its best; their theft or destruction and destruction/theft of these items humanity at its worst.
I would not wish it to happen, but it is a good thing that our collective sorrow at what happened to Notre-Dame has brought we humans together at a time when so much divides us.
To quote from a song:
Now is the time for your loving, dear,
And the time for your company,
Now when the light of reason fails
And fires burn on the sea;
Now in this age of confusion
I have need for your company.
Children of Darkness, by Richard Farina, 1965.
6
Richard and Mimi Farina - what perfect music for our time...thank you for the reference and memory.
@Aram Hollman
Thank you for that reminder of the immortal Richard Farina. I had just finished reading his novel, "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me" when he died in that auto accident. He was brilliant, insightful and incredibly precocious --- lucky to have had the love of Mimi Farina, and then tragically unlucky to lose his life so young, at the height of his promise.
I was just a teenager when I experienced his music and writing, but they made a lifelong impression that helped shape my own career as a writer.
And visiting Paris as a college student, I could see Notre Dame from the little window of my garrett. How romantic was that! I had just studied Gothic architecture in an overview class. To actually see Notre Dame up close was overwhelming. I loved the way people seemed so comfortable and familiar within it; they had made it a part of their lives.
5
@Aram Hollman:
yes, it is a World Heritage site.
1
As a millennial, My first introduction to Notre Dame was through the Disney movie. I have a suspicion it was the same for many of the younger Nytimes readers. That movie, as well as the novel and countless other childhood experiences instilled in me a sense of Europe as an exotic and mystical place, a distant, far off magical place of the past.
Years later, after I went off to college (and during application season learned the difference between the university and the cathedral) I finally visited Paris myself. To my surprise, the gardens in front of the cathedral were filled with lively music and theatrical spectacles. Here was a place as much a part of the present as the past.
And then I entered into the majestic building and I felt the weight of centuries of history. But to my surprise there was something familiar there. If I were religious, I would call it the divine.
Maybe it is just the feeling one gets staring at remarkable beauty. Maybe it is just romantic escapism or an agnostic’s foolish wish to find something more in our existence on this pale blue dot. It’s a feeling I’ve had at a few other special places...the Western Wall or Pantheon, for instance.
Whatever this feeling is, we all need more of it in our lives. At Notre Dame I felt like I had come home. I know millions of other visitors have felt the same.
19
@Expected Value
Well described. The feeling of awe, of getting face to face with transcendent beauty and power, with the face of God itself.
I grew up around the Louvre and the Notre-Dame cathedral. Never felt that feeling of the divine or transcendent beauty. Just the best place to go roller-skating in the Cour Carree, or read a book in the shadow of Ile de la Cite. Everything was just normal, quotidian, banal.
However, when I first arrived at Harvard and on the second day was given the Widener Library card giving me access to the stacks, and was able to start strolling through the alleys of millions of books, I suddenly got that feeling of overpowering awe, of transcendent power, of the divine. I had come face to face with the world. As you said, I finally had the feeling that I had come home. And I never left it.
1
Because France and he Republic are in such fragile state right now, because people are afraid of the vast and fast changes in France and elsewhere, because there is a need to refer to what is quintessenially common to all French people, the people of France cried when the Cathedral went in flames. It was a symbol of our fear of losing what has made France so grand, so special, so beautiful, so intemporal, so marvelous.
8
Notre-Dame is also a grand and ancient acoustical space! We need to have such an aural atmosphere to experience.
8
Notre-Dame , as the many Gothic cathedrals all over Europe, represents humans' quest for spirituality and transcendence, which does not imply a God who cares for you. The Middle Ages gave us those monuments that inspire us today. In contrast, our Age will leave behind soccer, football and baseball stadiums, golf courses, etc. I wonder why we call the Middle Ages the Dark Ages? Progress is a hard concept to deal with.
12
@J. Parula Our age will also leave behind bathrooms and toilets for everyone. Thats maybe not breathtakingly beautiful, but it makes us live much longer and healthier than people in the middle ages.
1
@J. Parula
Were these cathedrals not financed in large part by selling indulgences to the wealthy and powerful?
While watching the coverage of Notre Dame burning, I was overwhelmed by the reverence and dignity of the French people as they stood in streets and sang. Paris has seemed sad for many years now, and French culture has often seemed to be in free fall. So in the face of a great tragedy, this feeling was comforting. I hope they can repair the cathedral, and Vive la France!
20
Please compare and contrast: your view of France as fallen, to my view of the USA as failed. No snark, real question. I feel we lost our way with the Clinton impeachment. We are now wandering in a desert. What was the moment you feel France fell?
I’ve only visited Paris once. A week certainly isn’t enough. A lifetime isn’t enough.
The intrinsic beauty of everything, even the street litter, makes one redefine beauty.
Surely, the catastrophe at Notre Dame is everyone’s loss.
But I will now say something I never expected to utter, let alone imagine: Donald Trump isn’t as bad as I thought he’d be.
1
Please, oh please, do not bring Donald Trump into this moment.
1
Excellent piece. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. As a Frenchman I am very surprised and equally pleased to see how people all over the world reacted to this sad news.
19
Thank you, Roger. You're exactly who I needed at this tragic moment.
9
This is eloquently written except for the comparison drawn, there is nothing more harrowing than the loss of human life, nothing more heartbreaking, heart wrenching and nothing more important, certainly not a church, as beautiful and important a symbol it might be to many.
My thoughts are naturally with the citizens of Paris & France and I hope they rebuild this magnificent structure, but my heart is in Yemen and the unending suffering there.
11
@Shane Michael Boland:
We humans are allowed to think about and care about more than one thing at a time.
3
Glorious, gorgeous, moving, apt. Merci, beaucoup. Vive la France.
8
Thank you for this beautiful text. I’m French but leave in the U.S. and am really touched that Americans around me share my sadness and can put such accurate words to describe this event.
27
"The loss of human life is terrible to behold, but the destruction of beauty may be no less so."
No.
9
“The French president was dignified, a reminder of the unifying power of dignity at a time when it has vanished from the White House.”
Macron at least tries to be a leader for all of France. Sometimes he fails but at least he tries to speak to everyone as he did on a tour of some 90 French cities since November and what the world witnessed yesterday.
That leadership has vanished from the White House for the first time in anyone’s living memory. He never has tried to be the president of all the people.
42
Trump prefers to be the leader of destruction. Approved by Putin.
3
Beautiful writing! You just became my favorite Op-Ed columnist, Roger! Lovely imagery and poetic prose. Of all that has been written on the burning of Notre Dame, yours is the most thoughtful, the most elegant. You made me feel better about the world. Thank you!
14
Perhaps it pays to remember the history of the site before 1160 when the Bishop of Paris decided to demolish the existing Romanesque cathedral and build a new Gothic cathedral, Notre-Dame:
A Gallo-Roman pagan temple probably stood at the site.
An early Christian basilica, dedicated to Saint Stephen was built in the 4th century CE, or possibly the 7th century with various stages in between which are not exactly clear. All told there were 4 churches before Notre-Dame.
Buildings come and go. They burn down, are demolished, re-built, changed, expanded etc. No building stands forever, just as no person is immortal.
Time and nature (and some would add God) also rule over construction.
19
Notre Dame as an iconic spiritual place touching people from many countries, many religions, many traditions: that I get.
The waxing poetic about the essentialness of "French civilization?" That I do not get. And regardless, Notre Dame is not "French civilization" - at least to me.
As I described to some children earlier today, reading about the fire reminded me about a book written by a thriller (spy?) writer about a British architect/mason, hundreds of years ago, whose dream was to build a great church (I believe he did - I read the book a long time ago!). In that book was a comment about how dark churches in Europe tended to be, and how light churches in England were. My limited (highly!) visits to churches in England and in Europe, including Notre Dame, echoed that assessment. Notre Dame? Beautiful, awe inspiring, enormous. And dark. Very dark (versus churches in England welcoming in streaming light - again, my sample size is very small). To now see Notre Dame opened up to the sky (hopefully with stained glass windows and other treasures intact), despite the tragedy of what transpired, is in its own way uplifting and gives a sense of the church embracing the world it reaches out to.
I think we can extoll its remarkable hold and presence without dwelling too much on French civilization. Others may feel the two cannot be separated. To me, at least how I experience them, they are in fact separate.
6
The book is “The Pillars Of The Earth” by Ken Follett, and it is absolutely brilliant.
I will be re-reading it this week. It’s a wonderful story that details the human effort, over decades — centuries — to build these “houses of god”.
I am not religious at all, but I wept to see that fire.
5
Just beautiful, Mr. Cohen. Notre Dame represents a sacred bond most of us share – a love, a reverence for things greater than ourselves. Hopefully, rebuilding this shrine will rekindle our sense of respect and love for one another.
34
Great work Roger. Very thoughtful and apropos. Thank you.
20
Like so many posting I mourn both the neglect of Notre Dame for so many years and then the catastrophic fire yesterday. I recall cool and ethereal moments under that soaring ceiling and magical light of the rose windows listening to the organ. But today I also recall the American neglect of its prized gift from France, the Statue of Liberty, which had decayed to the point of closing before it was finally given a massive renovation in the 1980s. I remember the pride and joy of relighting of the statue and look forward with great anticipation to the joy of seeing Notre Dame rebuilt so that generations from all nations will enjoy a rest in its walls under a soaring roof.
17
@Leslie- I mourn the neglect of poor, destitute, marginalized, homeless and abused HUMAN BEINGS throughout the world, for so many years, actually for eons. Think of that please before thinking about the so-called tragedy of Notre Dame.
Life is infused with metaphor. The fire at the Cathedral of Our Lady, Our Mother, is a metaphor. May this sacred edifice be fully restored, & may the recognition of the spiritually sublime, of spiritual exaltation, be remembered always.
12
Notre Dame is special. But not sacred First Nation sites and their structures. Why, oh why is European architectural history more important than other peoples, histories, and structures? It is indeed sad that that there was a fire, but no one laments the other fires going on right now.
11
Not true... there are many also grieving other fires. Perhaps a wider exposure to the world would comfort you, as you would learn that many of us can care for more than one thing.
18
@christina r garcia
There are fires going on everywhere in the world, all over the place, and all the time. Human beings are made to focus on things happening in the world they live in, that surrounds them and their lives. So what you can focus on and grieve about is mostly what happens in your own personal world and time. Thats what being made of flesh means, that you have to be anchored somewhere and some time, and that will define the scope of your perception and your emotional surges.
Your words are so lovely. Thank you.
13
Beautifully said by one of the wisest writers and observers we have today.
I have been thinking today of all the cathedrals and other monuments that have been bombed in wartime. They were reduced to rubble but rebuilt. It can be done. It will take a whole nation to do it. I hope it is something — something urgent and timeless — that all of France can agree upon.
13
Thank you for your thoughts, Mr. Cohen. For those of us who have been so blessed to call Paris home even for a short time in an apartment on the Ile St. Louis, Notre-Dame IS Paris. It shall rise from the ashes.
29
I am a secular humanist who loves all aspects of our collective visual culture—from our first attempts at representation found, for instance, in the caves of Europe to the complexities of our ability to create out of an ability to think in terms of abstractions, symbolic logic, and conceptual ideals. The explosive era of cathedral building in Europe doesn't represent my own personal spiritual reach—I'm an atheist—but I wholeheartedly accept the medieval realization of an immense beauty of conception followed by the construction of that idea of beauty. Notre Dame became our Great Mother of Civilized Co-Existence and Co-Evolution. It cannot die...
54
Superb article, thank you.
I hope the US government sees it way to making a substantial contribution to the restoration of this remarkable and symbolic building. But there's less chance of that happening than Trump converting to Islam. Build a roof not a wall. Vive la France.
86
@Ratty
Why should the citizens of the United States give a dime to restore a state church in a wealthy country?
1
@Ratty
"Build a roof not a wall. Vive la France."
Perfect !
6
I was born a Frenchman, a Breton to be more precise. I came to "America" to the U. S. when I was 24. And I stayed. It sort of happened as life does. Now I am an American citizen and as such, after hearing from here what the fire yesterday of Notre Dame meant to so many Americans, and hearing a bit more about reactions from around the world, from different religious entities, I now see the higher value that it represents today to the globe. I hope the French realize that and proceed with gratitude and humility as they bear a crucial responsibility for us all.
38
@erwan
Salut Erwan, a Frenchwoman here, also from Brittany (Brest), who came to the US at age 24 and stayed.
The gasps of horror at the quasi destruction of Notre Dame, from all over the world, made me realize how loved this monument is and how its total loss would have left millions of people bereft.
I'm proud to be French-American.
14
"It seemed impossible that something so monumental could be so fragile.” A powerful metaphor for democracy in both France and the U.S.
160
Well done, what a lovely tribute.
33
@Iconoclast1956 -Please Mr.Cohen, when an apartment building in NYC burns down and hundreds are left homeless, write a tribute. i bet you won't.
Even though it might seem arrogant, if you have known Paris only briefly as a tourist rushing across the best visited parts of Europe, you have not known Paris. You may claim Notre Dame as your own, as all of those who have yearned for the freedoms of Paris and the beauty of the city have every right to do, but you cannot know it fully.
Paris is in some ways a crowded, rushing city like any other with scooters and motorcycles scaring pedestrians who dare cross its streets. But the city is also much more than the bland others. It is a place of the mind, the heart and the soul, the place where some of the world's greatest writers and intellectuals have struggled and brought forth, for better and worse, some of the great works of the last centuries.
James Joyce came over from Ireland, as did, later, Samuel Beckett who then abandoned his native English and wrote in French. Chester Himes walked those streets, as did James Baldwin, Picasso, Mary Cassatt, Van Gogh (for a time) and that guy Hemingway, too (for a yr.) along with literally hundreds of others who have helped to enrich and define the western world.
It is not too much to say that Paris is a cathedral of the mind and of the creative arts, even though writers and artists can rarely afford residence now. Yesterday, the literal cathedral at the heart of ornamental, grand Paris burned, singed to a shell. It hurts. The fire is also a symbol of what Paris is on the way to becoming, a city only for tourists and the very rich.
30
@Doug Terry
Nice eulogy.
But there's another side of exaggerated regulation, control, claustrophobia, Catholic conformity and poverty that you don't see. On the other side, people like Descartes, Mozart, Henry James, Henry Miller, or Nabokov couldn't wait for the day they could get out and breathe again freely.
1
I fought back tears with every single word you wrote Mr. Cohen.
You clarified my emotions, brought my feelings into focus. Watching Notre Dame burning yesterday, I thought of the last time I was there, listening to the choir, feeling as though they had been heaven-sent. Since that time, so much of the structure of our lives, the strong institutions, have been undermined, lost, but not Notre Dame. It will be rebuilt, it will stand again, and yesterday, after the flames dwindled, for the first time in a long time, I had hope.
50
Thank you for expressing beautifully the feelings of heart and soul that have arisen from this tragic fire. Your words about the Statue of Liberty and also of Trump reminded me of the day shortly after the 2016 election of Trump when I was approaching the Pont de Grenelle bridge in Paris and came upon a small group of people standing at the side of the bridge overlooking the smaller version of the Statue of Liberty that stands on the island in the Seine below. When I got closer I could see that there was one of the famed pompiers scaling the statue to stand on the very top of her head. I was amazed at this feat and the fact that he was trying to disentangle and remove a long black stretch of cloth blanketing her face and draping down her front. I knew then that someone before the pompier had also gotten to the top of the statue to drape that black cloth as a statement of what they thought about the election of Trump. Prescient, n'est pas?
35
Thank you for this lovely column, Mr Cohen.
The rise of conservatism and nationalism around the globe has put me in an angry funk. When I saw Notre Dame burning, it felt as if it was the end of the world. It is not that I am religious; far from it, I think conservative religions (basically, all of them) are contributing to the destruction of civilization. I felt a similar sense of loss in 2001, before 9/11, when the Taliban destroyed the 1,500-year-old Buddhas with their burp guns. That was a crime against humanity, and the Notre Dame fire is another blow to civilization itself. Right now, I see little hope.
27
The last visit to The Cathedral took place twenty years ago in 1999 when my closest friend and I visited my mother on the Left Bank. Neither lived to see this destruction, and there are times that Ionesco's words come to mind, 'The Living are growing rarer by the day', written after WWII.
On hearing the News mid-afternoon this Monday last from a friend in MD., I placed a call to a Parisian late her time who lived the war and she replied 'It is an act of God'. A devout Catholic, she is surrounded by priests and the Clergy, and I listened. President Trump, she continued, tried to help by suggesting that water be doused from the air, while I remained silent.
My elderly family friend at Versailles also awake mentioned this act of God, and yet a French Catholic nun and a long-time friend, a doctor for Women's Health and Pro-Life, might leave God out of this equation.
When traveling the countryside road earlier, my neighbor now retired from one of America's largest power companies, down at Ground Zero during 9/11 with his associates, explained that these fires often take place during restoration work. Human error.
Friends here ask whether it is alright to weep. Notre-Dame has been saved by the courage of men and it will be restored for that is my belief, but the time to weep is drawing to a close for it is time to fight and unite.
You remember the Bell Tollers seen at The Cathedral long ago in youth, and they are working harder than ever, while the pendulum swings.
5
Mr. Cohen, Thank you for this beautiful description. When I was 21, I lived at the Cité International des Arts for 5 months.
Each day when I looked out the window there it was, Notre Dame, across the river, graceful, serene, and protective. I would eventually walk in to meditate along with all the people gathered in the pews.
France was so welcoming, and especially this place which challenges description. It is perfection.HOw often do we have that in our lives?
It was so sad to watch it burn, and so miraculous that it was not destroyed.
31
I agree.
I thought of Kenneth Clark, civilization, who opens with a view of Notre Dame. He cant define civilization but knows it when he sees it, as he turns around to look across to the Isle.
He also says that western civilization has sometimes been under threat, once nearly lost to the Barbarians.
Yes Mr Cohen, it does seem fragile. The left must not destroy it for the sake of political correctness, nor make false equivalencies between all cultures, some barbaric indeed, and western civilization. Imperfect, yes. but the best there has ever been.
13
I do agree with one sentence you wrote: "Civilization is fragile."
12
Everything is grist for the mill. However tragic the fire at Notre-Dame, Mr. Cohen has to weave current politics into it as a sort of infomercial for the E.U. against Brexit and old-fashioned socialism against the independent-minded Yellow Vests. Could we take a little holiday from politics? Could we make rebuilding Notre-Dame a politics-free zone?
15
@Ronald B. Duke -- And he managed to bring Trimp into the mix. I was wondering how the U.S. president might be maligned as somehow to blame for this tragedy, and sure enough, an opinion columnist did not miss the opportunity. In what way, at what time, did Trump ever "spit" on a sanctuary? It's as if whatever horrible thing happens in the world, no matter how unrelated, people reflexively associate it with Trump.
@PL The logic to this is that for thinking people Trump symbolizes evil today, as other more successful autocrats did in prior times. People who don't understand this, whether out of mere ignorance or not, are beneath contempt.
@Ronald B. Duke- rebuilding it? No. Tear it down. It's a relic from the Stone Age.. superstitious people built it.
If anyone is considering a trip to France this year, please don't give up because of the fire at Notre Dame. Paris has many more historic sites, churches and museums. The Abbey of Saint-Denis, in the northern suburbs of Paris, is where many of the Bourbon kings are buried. The Cathedral of Reims, northeast of Paris, is where the kings were crowned. The Cathedral of Chartres, an hour southwest of Paris, has some of the finest medieval stained glass anywhere, and a wonderful stained glass museum nearby. All these landmarks can be reached by train. And around them are art galleries, cafes, and shops where one can savor the flavor of France.
While in Paris, many people would also like to visit the Marais, the old Jewish quarter, to experience the 16th-century Place des Vosges square, Jewish cafes and delis, and the Shoah Museum that commemorates the Holocaust.
59
@Bearded One, So true, and well stated, with such affection for these peoples and places who have gone before us, but live on in these ancient Parisian walls. But the grandest dame of all has taken a bow and recedes into the mist. The oldest girl is gone. A newer one, standing in the wings, will emerge and flatter her.
5
@Bearded One
Have no fear, tourists will flock to France because of this tragedy, not stay away.
4
@Bearded One: Your ecumenical travelogue is appreciable and welcome.
Religion, Faith in the Divine, has become personal, private, psychological, philosophical, and less communal, less ceremonial.
But within her holy walls, in silence, in stillness, one could connect, across time, with believers, with wonderers, with all those desiring earnestly peace and communion with their Creator, all creation.
There are black holes in the universe: using our entire globe as a lens, and our best minds as eyes, we have seen one — a weighty dense sphere of nothingness, where time is not eternal, but rather cannot elapse at all.
But there are white holes, and rose holes, too: yearnings in the heart, selfless acts of total sacrifice, the deep peace in loving and being loved, the rosey fragrance of grace that wafts ephemeral across our ascending paths.
Roofless, Notre Dame is now a window into our hearts, and her own windows, rose holes into true eternity.
13
@Toms Quill- supersitions is more accurate. Time to tear down superstitious beliefs and an object such as this cathedral represents supersitions and needs to be torn down.
2
Beautifully written, Mr Cohen!
I see Notre Dame as a valiant expression of a religious and committed people, who built something as monumental as Pyramids, as Hagia Sophia... enduring to this day.
The fact they are French doesn’t really matter. France of that era is eons away from France of today, of an overwhelming majority almost dismissive of Divine, France of colonial era atrocities, France of religious non freedom and prejudice.
Yet, Notre Dame provided a meeting ground.
But media is already hearing the white noise of conspiracy stories of terrorism and Islamophobia... when placed in the direct line of this guilt (of ND being taken for granted), realizing that despite not practicing Catholicism they were all singing hymns, this opens up a vault of self analysis, and it is not pretty. This need to blame the “other”, when inside you know you’re equally guilty is not a pleasant state, is it?
Instead of blame and hate mongering, if people come together, then the physical insult to this monument had achieved something... otherwise, it’s mere words and just more colloquy.
5
One church burns in Paris and before the firemen arrive, Donald Trump tweets solutions. Meanwhile four churches burn in Louisiana and nary a peep?
260
Because Trump proved to be a racist exhibitionist. That's all he is.
3
Important yes, however whoever was overseeing the safety of Notre-Dame during the current renovation not so much. Hopefully will get to the bottom of it eventually.
I find it interesting (depressing) with all the atrocities happening around the globe that a bunch of billionaires tossed in 600 million in less than 12 hours. To have their name somehow linked to Notre-Dame in the history books perhaps?
13
@Hal Wrong. These contributors are French patriots.
2
@phil
You missed the point of my post.
Still in response to your reply, Tim Cook is not a French patriot, and there are many others.
I saw Notre Dame very late in my life, at age 71, but I remember something about my late uncle, an eminent painter of India and like me a secular Hindu in values and temperament. Back in 1965 when we were both in New Delhi and he was going to stop for a few days in Paris on his way to New York, the first thing on his mind was to visit this cathedral. Going to the museums and the areas of the city famous for nurturing painters was important but secondary. Somehow, despite his vocation that priority felt natural to him. That's one more way to define this church's transcendence.
47
My hope that the rebuilding of the cathedral, when it does happen, will ALSO become a metaphor for some kind of restoration of the basic idea that all people should be treated with dignity and respect, rather than being shunned and feared.
Global economic change has become very rapid and continues to uproot people & destabilize communities all over the world. But whatever we do in the face of it, we have to retain our compassion & willingness to help others less fortunate than ourselves--even when our own lives and our own prospects don't seem as secure and hopeful as we would like them to be.
I'm reminded of the quote of Judge Dan Haywood, as portrayed by Spencer Tracy in the film Judgement at Nuremberg:
"There are those in our own country too who today speak of the 'protection of country,' of 'survival'. A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient, to look the other way. Well, the answer to that is 'survival as what'? A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! Before the people of the world, let it now be noted that here, in our decision, this is what we stand for: Justice, truth, and the value of a single human being."
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@Bryan Your post is brilliant and stirring.
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Notre Dame was falling apart before the fire. Gargoyles replaced by plastic pipes, the limestone used during the restoration of the 1800's peeling off in great flakes.
Our Lady has been abused for -centuries-.
I can only hope this conflagration has opened the eyes of the French and she is truly restored.
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@Lee
True, and America had its own era of neglect of the Statue of Liberty and finally had its eyes opened and gave it a grand renovation in the 1980s
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Thank you, Mr. Cohen, for this piece.
Sincerely,
David Terry
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Informative, but to link this tragedy repeatedly to Trump, I find sickening. Notre Dame,whose burning wounded the soul of France, deserves not being dragged down to the mire of US politics.
Some events to sacrosanct to do so. This is one
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@talesofgenji,
But there's not a thing in a world that cannot be used for attacking Trump.
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@areader
But believe or not, there are reasons for that, beyond just the fact that its so easy.
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@areader We have proof that Trump would have destroyed Notre Dame with his stupidity as he destroys many other things and beings. And you think he is being attacked ?
Trump bashed France as much as he could and rejected the Paris ecology treaty .
Notre Dame was being restored because of damage from pollution in case you did not know...
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$235 Billion?
Imagine...if we put that much emotion, energy, and true treasure into something that actually serves people?
Oh, I don't know, a system to clean up the Seine? A way to grow food in city center with minimal carbon input? A place for the homeless to thrive?
No, let's glorify some magical in-the-sky 2000 year dead carpenter...Humans, we deserve what we do to ourselves!
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@SmartenUp Try not to take the fact that it's a cathedral and therefore "religious" too literally.
I think the article does a great job of pointing to the artistic achievement and longing of the human soul.
Notre Dame was also pointed out as a global symbol - meant for the world.
Everyone needs an ideal to strive for and Notre Dame is, like the Statue of Liberty, one of those symbols of an ideal for all humanity.
What these monuments stand for is the reason so many people are fleeing to the West and its civilization.
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@SmartenUp- agreed. Please read my posts above.
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My wife (of French descent) and I have visited 14 churches in Paris, none match the grandness of Notre-Dame, but the others are magnificent in their own right. There is a spiritual connection as you enter them, one Saint Germain-de-Pres on the left bank is the oldest, dating back to the year 500. then there's the great organ at St. Sulpice, we were there twice to hear it's greatness. Then there is St Nicolas-de-Champs on the right bank. Go there in November for the candlelight vigil honoring Saint Nicolas.
Notre Dame will be rebuilt, and in the meantime those other wonderful Cathedrals placed all around Paris will look after her reconstruction.
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Good point. My favorite is St-Sulpice
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Someone in a post commented on “cathedral thinking” which nicely sums up the inflection in our history.
At one point, cathedrals were designed to push human achievement past the confines of gravity; the buttresses reflect the imperfect comprises that had to be achieved to achieve soaring goals. Today’s civilization is also looking for that next state of human achievement— what does that soaring state look like? No doubt it will be imperfect— relying on buttresses to prop it up— but then, over time, building culture and knowledge to sustain it.
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I also lived in Paris in '76. Played guitar on the street across from Notre Dame. Made some francs and met some nice people whom I still call mon amis. What more could you ask for.
As you no doubt recall, they did a great Bastille Day in '76. The pompiers served food and wine in the yards of the fire houses. It went late into the night.
I expect this Bastille Day will be very emotional. Wish I could be there.
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“It seemed impossible that something so monumental could be so fragile.” is even more true of western civilization, being intangible memories and practices, than the monuments to western civilization, which in this case is carved rock. The gutted Notre Dame for me is Europe after the flood of non western migrants who show little interest in assimilating. The French mourn the loss of the monument more than what it stands for.
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@ett
An old Moroccan intellectual in Fez said the following words (to that effect) to me long ago...:
Can you imagine, our home, our Medina being infiltrated by the French pig-eating dogs, throwing our king and putting that terror Al Ghlaoui on us. They forced their culture on us, they thought our millennia old civilization was inferior, they felt it was their divine right to teach us a lesson.
Guess what you do to others, can come back to haunt you too? There are always two side seats to a story and history is a continuum, not just a moment in tome.
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Bravo...Roger Cohen! For your glorious elegy. I can hear Quasimodo ringing those ancient bells as a prayer for peace and goodwill so sorely lacking in this
Trumpian era.
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There is something hauntingly beautiful about this morning's pictures of the interior of Notre-Dame. For the first time in centuries the nave is illuminated by sunlight. The Cathedral will be rebuilt just as France rose from the ashes and sorrows of World War-II. As with that great nation in 1945, the damage is massive but the bones are good. The hopes and prayers of the world are with the people of France at this time.
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The world is united in lamenting the loss of a great work of architecture. That it is a center of Catholicism actually detracts from the Cathedral’s heritage for not all the world can openly celebrate Catholicism and the loss of indigenous heritage that has unfortunately accompanied Catholicism around the world. With that said let the Cathedral be designed with new realizations and aspirations for our collective survival on this Earth.
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@tony
Dear Tony, Your comment rings true. It is a UNESCO world heritage site, meaning it belongs to YOU as much as it belongs to any French citizen. Just as many of the lesser known "indigenous" UNESCO sites. I would mourn their loss as I do this one. You?
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The great fire in Paris comes at a curious time, when social media are full of diatribes against the historical treatment of indigenous people by the church. But today’s outpouring of concern and solidarity flies in the face of this view, as it has for at least a couple centuries. Revolutions have overthrown colonialist powers, but the revolutions were directed at overseas governments, not against the church. Indeed, revolutions were proclaimed from pulpits. There is plenty to criticize in the Roman Catholic Church, but what it has represented and continues to represent to countless generations remains, and is symbolized by Notre Dame itself.
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@John Mccoy
Dear Mr. Mccoy, ah, yes. The urge to ascribe grand meaning to unlucky circumstance. See any black cats lately?
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I am and will always be a francophile. This has been a tremendously hard week. My heart breaks.
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Mr. Cohen. Thank you for the well-chosen words. At the moment, literally or metaphorically, all is not lost. Beyond anything you have so nobly addressed, the central lesson of last night's tragedy is simple: Nothing lasts forever save ideas, and those expire at humanity's last breath.
Ozymandias has already weighed in on this, courtesy of Percy Shelley.
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Bigger than Paris and France is Christianity, and bigger than that is humanity and all its capacity for hope, faith, vision, hard work and genuine goodness... rejecting destruction, to embrace redemption and renewal. Mosaic religions' spring festivals are about that. This is true of other religions, too. In the images of Paris's fire-damaged Notre Dame, I see humanity's terrible flaws, but even more, all its promise... with the help of God, if that is your belief. A grievous reality alongside the historical Christian imagery, and the spiritual fragrance of centuries of hopes and prayers, in Notre Dame, this burned-out sanctuary, and its future of being worked upon for renewal, together are held in my heart.
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Such an essay gets to the heart of this terrible moment, strikes the accurate notes-- spiritual and cultural-- and speaks of how much we lose if we lose a monument like Notre Dame. Thank you Roger Cohen for writing this.
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France always reminded me of one of my most annoying siblings. She was always difficult, always a prima donna, always strutted about with such arrogance. You loved her and disliked her at the same time. But when the chips were down and coming together was paramount and essential, all of the pettiness and silliness were cast aside and a keen sense of solidarity took precedence.
In light of the Notre Dame tragedy, I would hope and wish all of France's friends would join forces and help rebuild something great again for all future and present generations.
I might even try that approach with my most annoying sister, who's first name happens to be Paris - I swear on a stack of blessed bibles.
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I am not French, and I haven't lived in France, so my response is distanced. Horror, yes, but also hope.
Fire, as anyone who has personally experienced its destruction, is - I don't have an appropriate word for the feeling. And the indescribable feeling sits upon something primal, raw.
I see survival. It, the pronoun seems too detached, is not a victim, but a survivor. In the images, yes, admittedly, I cannot feel the proximity of the pain, I see strength.
Scars, in time, can be beautiful for what they represent. Because on survivors can be scarred.
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Undoubtedly objections will be raised to a national repair of Notre-Dame. That's as it should be.
But I expect most citizens of France, women and men, young and old, thousands of years of history in the nation, or just a few, even whether Christian, to storm to the cause of its restoration.
Notre-Dame, as have many structures of the ages intended for very different purposes, has come to represent much that its builders never conceived of. Notre-Dame shelters beneath a roof and within its towering walls the spirit that gave rise to the Tricolour, Paris, Seine, Louvre, Charlemagne, Bastille, "Liberté, égalité, fraternité," the defeat in 1940 and the victory in 1945 ... Notre-Dame is.
I fully expect the French people to never give in, never back down, never retreat and never surrender to the nay sayers. Much that is the hope of western democracy resides in that belief that created not just France but the U.S. and democray at large and that faith lives in Notre-Dame. The French people won't forget that.
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@John F McBride
Thank you for your thoughts, Mr. McBride. Objections may be raised, but it is, after all, a building owned by the French state, and as I see it they have three choices: 1 full restoration, 2 preserve it as an allegorical ruin, and 3 demolish it. Awful hard to argue for 2 and 3 and what they might inadvertently represent.
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The holocaust of the burning Cathedral in Paris is a frightening metaphor for the current human condition—social and political. My wife and I walked through the Cathedral in ‘02 and ‘03. I remember thinking that American churches lacked the grandeur and history of those that dotted the major cities of the Continent.
Now, as an old man, I know that I’ll never live to see the great structure restored. I can’t begin to imagine how the French feel about their symbol now in ruins. Probably a lot like most of us who now see a grim future shading into the ominous.
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@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18, as long as you have ‘02 and ‘03, what else matters? All things turn to dust. Rebuilding it may now serve the same sense of cause for those today that it originally once did for those who built it 800 years ago. A precious thing to have for those forced to endure the hopelessness of the ominous.
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@John Doe
"We'll always have Paris."
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Beautifully done, Mr. Cohen, and thank you. One of your best.
I share your sense that French civilization has never felt more important, and hope that if any good is to come of the disaster of Notre Dame it is that it can serve as a reminder to friends and neighbors here of the bounties of this magnificent country.
My up close and personal experiences with “les gilets jaunes” have left me with a sense of sadness; that while my fellow countrymen have legitimate grievances, heavily taxed to be sure, they have lost sight of what those taxes fund: civilization.
France is certainly imperfect, but to my mind, it remains one of the most civilized countries on Earth. May the heart-wrenching damage done to Notre Dame remind all of us with the good fortune to live here of what a united, thoughtful populace can accomplish.
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@HeyNorris
I couldn't agree more @HeyNorris. I have been saddened and (I must say) angered as the legitimate grievances of the 'gilets jaunes' have been taken over by extremists who seek anarchy and glory in the destruction of property. Huh? France has some of the best healthcare, education, and quality of life support in the world. You can't get more for less (taxes). Macron wants to make it sustainable.
Yesterday evening we walked down to the river and stood with the silent crowds on our bridge, stunned by the sight of the two towers silhouetted against the still glowing inferno that collapsed the 19thC spire and 2/3's of the 13thC roof.
I read this morning that Americans are suggesting we repay the gift of our Statue of Liberty by providing the funds and the red oak to rebuild the spire.
What a great idea... an American spirit to be proud of again.
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@Rob -----"read this morning that Americans are suggesting we repay the gift of our Statue of Liberty by providing the funds and the red oak to rebuild the spire."
The debt was paid on June 6, 1944 at Omaha Beach.
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I was deeply moved by the burning of Notre-Dame. Not just because of the loss of a magnificent physical structure. But because of what that loss meant to those who mourned its destruction.
My personal loss is then not just the building, but the pain the loss of the building has caused countless millions around the world. Certainly, I appreciate the loss of priceless artifacts and architecture. But it is the pain that others felt that has gotten to my deepest core.
No one building can be more holy than any other, but this cathedral was truly a holy place, because of the good will and togetherness it fostered. That coming together is the essence of all faiths. This is why it must be rebuilt.
This fire is then a unifying moment for our fractured world. It symbolizes that which holds us together. It's rebirth will represent that which keeps us together. This message is the exact opposite of what drives our politics. Perhaps this tragedy will cause a few to abandon their isolationist, rejectionist tendencies. Perhaps I say. Only perhaps.
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Now open to the sky, Notre-Dame might be viewed as having achieved an expanded interior height which includes the view of heaven. Yes, the view from inside the cathedral, no longer closed in by a lead shield affords a view, for those who would consider seeing in that manner, of the realm which not only protects and shields our planet from the destructive forces of Nature which would render life impossible on Earth, but also the view circumscribed by a millennium of prescribed devotion contained within what its exalted architecture. With the interior of the cathedral restored but the roof left open to the sky, it's possible that the generations who follow, for those from afar who will wend their way to the island in the middle of the seine upon which this sanctified house of worship stands, and for those whose home is Paris, the open-to-the-sky cathedral would allow for a more exalted vision, a vision which will include a much wider congregation than the parochial vision of a particular Christian denomination, and open a path for the healing of those who strive and pull against one another: the vision inspired by the hallowed walls of the great cathedral with its newly opened view of the heaven which is open to each one of us. By all means restore the structure but also see the possibility inherent in what has been revealed by the removal of the lead shield which, up until only yesterday, closed it in.
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Brings to mind a fascinating book I read a few decades ago - a fictional tale about the building of a Gothic cathedral.
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. Apparently the sequel is even better.
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“ ... the unifying power of dignity ....” What a very beautiful way to say it and what we can now appreciate in the loss of something that over years and years uniquely brought the entire world together, reconciled in the common goodness of humanity. Thank you, Roger Cohen. And this in great contrast to the present time we Americans are rightly embarrassed by and yet in need of, grounding awareness for renewed and life-affirming hope.
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