I’ve never been to Beirut. But I’ve been to Paris countless of times – more than I can recall. It is a place that has been woven incomprehensibly into my being – like a diamond that has lodged itself into my soul. In Paris I have made new friends, lost old ones, fallen in love and lost love. I’ve never lived there but I feel like I do. If I could call Paris home I would.

My reaction after the terrorist attacks in Beirut and Paris is that these attacks are not just attacks on people – but on the idea of modern cities. Terrorists want us to hate being in places that welcome different types of people. They want to destroy the multi-hued, multi-cultural, modern cosmopolitan city. Where difference is welcomed as a unifying factor. They want us to hate being alive. They want us to hate living in places like Beirut and Paris.

I was thinking this on Saturday as I was walking around Paris the day after the attack. Walking past the Pantheon I saw a wedding party. A mixed-race, multi-cultural wedding. I turned and held the hand of my husband – my brown hand in his white – I smiled and realized that yes from Paris to Beirut to Manila to Singapore cities are about life. They are also all about love, including for the other.

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