London wakes

I was on one of the first tubes this morning. On the way to catch an early train from King’s Cross. It’s strange to pass through a station this large when it is devoid of people. It’s beautiful and unnerving all at once. I missed the bustle. For all our complaints about hating the commute, for those of us who travel in London regularly, there is a safety and familiarity in the crush. 

An acceptance and understanding of a shared rules in our own community. Where we know to queue for the Jubilee line, but no other ones. And where we know which signs to ignore in our most familiar stations to shave 30 seconds off a transfer. Millions of people who have never met coordinating their movements together. It’s both unnatural and a beautiful thing. 

By the time most of you wake life will be carrying on as normal for some and be changed forever for others. London, as a city, will be changed yet resolute. There are signs everywhere of a city impacted by sad events over many years – CCTV, the station warnings about suspicious activity and the posters. We keep going, we keep travelling and we keep hoping. I don’t know if it is defiance or habit, but maybe maintaining habit in the face of threat is an act of defiance in itself. 

I’m due at the House of Commons for a reception next week and my colleagues visit for work more often than I do. It’s a special place. Symbolic and vibrant.  I don’t know how that experience will change in the aftermath of yesterday’s tragic events. It will be sad that it might. My thoughts are with the victims, the families and friends impacted and the emergency services that responded or lost a colleague. 

My thoughts are also with the communities that, by undesired and unwarranted association with the incident, will be impacted in the way they are treated. For our own benefit and for London’s we need to maintain our habits, but also our reaction. The last year has been tough and undoubtedly divisive. Now is a time to focus on the sanctity of human life and what we have in common. The events of yesterday need to represent a need to unite and heal, not an opportunity to further create schisms. Hate and distrust creates and fuels hate and distrust. The common enemy we need to unite against is simply anyone who would seek to divide us. 

If you are reading this on your way to work then try and build a bridge today. Try and speak to someone that you wouldn’t normally. Try and build a human bond with someone that wasn’t there before. Our relationships are what make life worth living. Show your defiance wherever you are by bringing your communities a little closer in response to a tragic and divisive act. 

London will keep waking up each day and we will keep living and working together. 

A nearly empty King’s Cross