The parade in Paris.

Paris did not look much like a city at all after the Great Reckoning, obviously, as

so much of it has been destroyed or repurposed for military use.

The scene shows a city broken.

It is being rebuilt.

There are cranes everywhere and even one or two completed new buildings.

But there is still at this stage more loss than renewal.

Paris is in the midst of the impossible task of civic resurrection.

And along the streets we can see a ramshackle, unofficial parade.

Notice that the parade does not have floats or balloons or a marching band.

It is simply made up of people walking.

Ostensibly, this is about citizens who own nothing, celebrating at the end of the reckoning.

They cannot afford music nor decor, but a parade is simply a momentous movement of people through a town.

It is easy to look at the gathering and see the optimistic determination of humankind.

Look at the faces of those in the parade.

Are they optimistic?

Are you?

But the triumph of humanity is not our tionneur's story here.

Look again at the parade.

It is made up of people, yes, but more specifically what kind of people.

Do you see each man and each woman?

Do you see their uniforms, their vests, their stopping work to march, perhaps it's a strike?

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