notre dame

Hey kind krafters,


I’m sure you have all seen the recent news about the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the outpour of support and memories being shared by Facebook friends and Instagram followers. Personally, I was saddened by the fire and sent good thoughts to those who were battling the flames and for people who were nearby and hoped that no one would get hurt in the incident. I feel badly for those who were deeply impacted by the fire and for those who the cathedral holds a very special place in their hearts. However, I was also saddened by the different posts I saw online surrounding the event.


I was amazed and upset by the amount of money that was raised within the first ten days after the fire had occurred. According to a BBC article published on Thursday April 25th, the amount of Euros raised had reached 750 million. The current exchange rate for the Euro to Canadian dollar is 1:1.50 which makes that total $1,127,497,500 in Canadian dollars. This amount is immensely unreasonable and apparently too much money for how much fixing the cathedral is actually going to cost. Though this building is gorgeous and obviously holds a lot value to many different people, I believe that this money could be used towards much more important restorations.

The picture above was shared over 500,000 times through just one Facebook page – I was one of those people that shared it! I believe that if the money spent to rebuild the cathedral was instead given to corporations that help our planet, a much smarter decision would have been made. There was a post circulating on the days following the fire that stated that the money donated to rebuild Notre Dame would have been enough to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I’m not sure how this was measured and if it is even correct, but I’m sure that 750 Euros could definitely go a long way with helping our environment. So, as I said before I was upset and my heart hurt for the people whose lives had been effected by the fire at Notre Dame, but I was disappointed with how quickly people were willing to leap to action for a building and how long it is taking for people to take any action at all to help our planet. A building is beautiful but only serves a select amount of people, whereas our Earth serves us all. ​

Another thing that was plastered all across social media after the fire, were posts being shared about how people should not be upset about the cathedral burning because there were more important things happening. A large part of this was saying that there was a load of discrimination attached to the money and the amount of social media coverage that the cathedral received. Personally, I think that if another building – let’s say the Taj Mahal – were to catch on fire, there would be a similar outpour of coverage and financial aid.


A few days before the Notre Dame fire, there were three churches in Louisiana that were also affected by fire. These fires were set on purpose however as a racist attack. This news is upsetting and to me, more upsetting than Notre Dame because the fires were set as an act of hate. After the Notre Dame fire, tragedy struck Sri Lanka as terrorists bombed and killed over 250 people and injured hundreds more. This was an act of hate against Christianity and it deeply hurts me to know that people who were just trying to worship peacefully were killed by extremists. These two current events are shocking and tragic; my heart aches for both communities. However, I am able to feel sad for the communities in Louisiana and Sri Lanka – as well as Paris. I’m crushed that people felt the need to shame others in a time of such immense grief for all communities across the world, and to say that their feelings weren’t valid.


I am saddened by many news stories that I read every day. Some stay with me for a long time, while others I now feel like I have built up an immunity to because I see posts about them every single day. As Nova Scotian’s, we can imagine the devastation felt in a community as a result of a fire. I know many of my friends have posted about both Louisiana and Paris and I think I saw an equal representation of both stories. With all three of the stories shared in this blog, we have seen how faith can be a target. But in all of these stories we can also see how strong faith can be for someone. Whether you’re religious/spiritual or not, I think we can all appreciate the beauty that people are able to find inside a faith. I saw someone share the following quote last week “people don’t go to church for the building, they go for the faith inside” – I think this speaks to the tragedies faced by the three communities mentioned.

At this time, (and in any time!!!!) we must be kind to each other. We have to recognize our own feelings and validate them, but we must do the same for others. I’m not sure if this article has really shared a specific point, or has allowed me to write out some of my thoughts and frustration surrounding all of the posts I have seen on social media recently. Either way, thank you for listening to me this week kind krafters!


Lots of love,
Rhi xoxo