A Pall Hangs Over a Homecoming

Tonight will mark my return to Brooklyn after a two-year-and-two-month absence.  It is the return of live Secret Science Club lectures to the beautiful Bell House.  As if that weren't enough, tonight's lecture will feature a personal hero of mine, Primatologist Frans De Waal, who has been working for decades not to bridge the divide between humans and animals, but to point out that there really is no divide.

Today would be an unambiguously glorious day, but for one event which casts a poll over the day, the borough of Brooklyn, the New York City metro area, and the country- a shooting at a D/N/R station at the 36th St stop which claimed ten lives.  Longtime readers might recall that my typical Bell House trip involves a ride on the 4 Train from the Bronx to the Atlantic Ave stop in downtown Brooklyn, then a transfer to the R train.  Looks like I'll be taking shanks' mare down 4th Ave this evening.

I can't complain, this is a minor inconvenience at worst, a chance to check out interesting restaurants at best.  People were killed, people are wounded, that's the thing to remember.  Those deaths sadden me, but I refuse to live in fear.  Brooklyn, here I am come, but with my gladness tempered for sorrow for the fallen.

CORRECTION: None of the ten people shot has died, all in all, 29 people were injured, but there were no fatalities, thank goodness.