Comparing Tax Day to running a marathon suddenly seems wholly inappropriate. It's nothing like running the Boston Marathon this April 15th. It was just after my last post that I learned of the news of the horrific events that were unfolding in Boston.

Finish last tax return. Check.

Post to Chocolate Chip Mint about finishing last tax return. Check.

Post to Facebook. Wait... what's this? A friend posted that someone had bombed the Boston Marathon and urged people to search news sources for more information. A quick search resulted in an article. It had pictures. I was staring at my screen in disbelief when my office manager came around the corner with another tax return. (We weren't nearly as close to finishing as I thought.)

I spun around in my chair to face her and she laughed at the blank look on my face. She had very good reason to think my expression was simply the glazed over look of the overworked and overtired. I tried to correct her. I told her someone bombed the Boston Marathon. I had to say it twice before she looked past me to the images on my computer screen.

Unbelievable.

Of course, my first thought was for the Grump and the offices of the Internet's Most Exclusive Blog. But it only took me a moment to consider that it was highly unlikely the Grump was a participant although there was a very slight possibility he was an onlooker. Staying in touch with the site assured me that everyone affiliated with 76003.1414 was safe.

How crazy was this week for Boston and it's neighbors? Other worldly. I am six time zones away watching the events unfold with everyone else from every place in the nation (and well beyond). I feel so far away but still feel the nationalism such a tragedy inspires.

How can preparing 200 tax returns in a few compressed weeks compare to that? I have my legs. I have my life. We, here at Chocolate Chip Mint, wish to express our sorrow for the people of Boston and Massachusetts, for the participants of the marathon who traveled great distances and fervently chased their aspirations just to get there, the onlookers, the organizers of the marathon, runners as a community, people all over the world who were connected to the Marathon in one way or another, and  people who had nothing to do with the Marathon but were caught up in its events nonetheless. Above all, we express our condolences to the victims and their families.

What do such tragedies inspire? Where do we go from here? The purest moment is already gone. The media frenzy will dissolve into politics. Politics will dissolve into passivity. We'll all move on and forget. There will be movies, eventually.

Just for now, we are together, united somehow. That's all we have and we should embrace that, if nothing else.