The Glow

Today NPR was doing a piece on Chernobyl, which included interviews by witnesses and survivors recorded at the tenth anniversary.

One account that struck a chord was a woman describing the first night of the accident. She lived within view of the nuclear plant, and could see the fire from her ninth story balcony. As darkness descended, she and all her neighbors crowded the balconies, or the streets below, to watch the fire -- a fire with a glow unlike any seen before. Parents were pulling their kids onto the balconies, telling them to watch and remember this unique view. None of them had any clue that what they were really doing was exposing themselves even more to the radiation -- to the pretty glow.

Or, as she put it:

"We didn't know that death could be so beautiful."

Just some thoughts,

Sean