People matter. They always matter, and always will matter. Sometimes the sensitivity leaves us so raw that we question our ability to recover and restore our connection to a more peaceful, useful source. And yet we can recover, we can restore, we can rebuild, and we can remember.
"We are at war and this will cost us a great deal. Who is responsible and what do we do?" I have seen today the reruns of news, the confusion and chaos of 091101. It rained today in New York. Six years ago 'tore across our history", remarked Mayor Bloomberg, the men and women in official uniforms, and those volunteers that said those are my neighbors, let me help".
Our sense of connection to our humanity, the fragile conditions of fear.. the shortness of life..the compassion.... all was heightened on that day. At 11:45 September 11, 2001, the city, shrouded in a thick debris as the towers, the lives, the business paper work, had fallen and the chaos had it's rise in the form of an overpowering layer of sorrow. We honor 3,000 people lost in this solemn moment- 2,750 in the World Trade Center alone. We can not underestimate that pain, nor can we soothe the feeling of loss and terrific trauma. Emotional trauma was high.. Painful life experience as we came to terms with the volume of disaster that had fallen on our world.
For several years, I have appreciated the gravity of loss, offered solemly on the
CNN Memorial. This depth of corporate and personal loss runs deep and lingers long. My neighbors are related to
Todd Beamer who perished in Flight 93. To allow another's strength and boldness to affect you in a positive way, is essential and refreshing. My friends and neighbors shared a lovely memorial article written by Todd's former university alma matter. They talk about taking things lightly and not allowing anger to overwhelm our better selves. I love living in proximity to that level of humanitarian maturity.
How do we, as world citizens, bring recovery and appropriate memorial to the lives lost on September 11, 2001, and the lives lost that followed in the name of a "war on terror"?
I know and knew the World Trade Center's long before the attacks that morning. Sun Microsystems had offices, and systems in the World Trade Center, that our Help Desk served, and a few of us had worked a good many weekends responding to help desk issues arising from that area. One of our peers had moved to New York to be a System Administrator in WTC02, just several short months prior.
The pain and sorrow we felt by wanting to stop the pain, stop the bleeding, stop the torture-- was clouded by our duty to do what must be done. Like so many, I felt a responsibility to speak for kindness in response to 091101. Using the talents we possessed to help restore balance, love, and compassion in times of terror was most important for many of us.. in times of devastating loss.
We remember that life is precious as we observe the past, not wishing to shut the door on it, but wishing to give it proper memorial, and learning a new sense of freedom from tyranny, a sense of gravity from the incident, and a renewed sense of purpose towards healing and helping one another.
We can offer more than empty loss. In the day of it's happening and the years that followed the violence becomes difficult to rationalize, to justify, or manage.
- How will we need to be of service as a result of this tragedy?
- How do we allow healing to replace heartache?
- How do we care in a way that people are really transformed with a loving resilience to face whatever life hands us with a relative grace?
Let us not minimize the loss, let us not commercialize ,but respectfully remember and begin to heal and to be an agent of healing.
We can know a new freedom and a new happiness, by remembering, mindful observance of our past, without wishing to shut and bar the door on the discomfort.
We can be an agent of peace and uncommon love.
Let that become the greater power to the depth of our human condition.
We can feel the loss, while lighten-ing the loads of those who hurt more.
"Building a foundation for the future in the here and now. " Renowned Buddhist Monk,
Thich Nhat Hahn spoke recently on a visit to CO. "We need to open our eyes in order to get in touch with the paradise of forms and colors."
TIME: Faces of Ground ZeroDallas Morning News: Richardson TX Former Head of Todd M Beamer still mindful of love!Facebook Memorials: Remember 9/11.
To Heal on September 11.
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