But

Here I was, thinking about what to blog about, and the news came in about Boston. Please, praying people, pray for the injured and bereaved. Give thanks and pray for the medics and emergency services on the spot.

If you go to London now, you can expect to have your bag checked before they let you in to the major museums and galleries, just in case you're carrying explosives or anything else dangerous. You can't take a bottle of water on an aeroplane, or carry your nail scissors in your hand luggage. Vigilance is vital. It seems incredible that anybody would want to bomb a major summer flower show, but you can't get into the Chelsea Show without going through security. There used to be a postbox on Kings Cross Station. There isn't now. Can you work out why?

I was greatly relieved that our most recent big events - Prince William and Kate's wedding, the Queen's Jubilee, the Olympics - went off without any outrages. London is now preparing for the funeral of the former Prime Minister Mararet Thatcher, so again the police are on the alert for any signs of terrorism. But...

But... we need a sense of proportion. Most of us, day by day, go about our lives in safety. Stations are full of people going to work and back, making shopping trips, taking holidays and visiting friends, and all in safety. Most people, most of the time, are good. At times like this, we need to know two things about terrorist attacks. One is that they are very, very rare. The other is that they are horrible enough to make us all stop and think, and try to understand how it is that any person can choose to wreak such indiscriminate violence. Then somehow we might be able to do something about preventing it.