9/11

 I stayed home the day it happened.  My wife hurt her back the night before.  She needed me to stay home and take care of our newborn son.  He was just a few months old.  I saw the story of a “commuter plane” that apparently had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.  Nobody was sure what it was, what had happened.  There was just that plume of smoke.  A helicopter was flying around the tower, focusing on the smoke.  The feed was live.  I can’t recall the channel that I was watching, but I remember clearly standing there, attentively watching the television.  I am, after all, a New Yorker.  

I held my son in my arms; he’d woken up for a feeding.  I normally turned the TV on when I fed him.  I kept the volume low, of course, but I watched some times to keep myself occupied.  He often fell asleep in my arms, which is what he had done that morning.  He slept peacefully and quietly in my arms.  The tower with the plume of smoke was in the foreground, and the helicopter slowly panned around the building.  The second tower was behind the first, slightly to the right.  Then, out of nowhere, that second plane came, low and fast…

What have we learned in eight years?  I am not sure.  There is a video for a song called “War is My Destiny” on YouTube (http://tinyurl.com/mo4rk4).  It is a violent, vicious, brutal video.  But the story sums up what I believe we need to know.  The essence is this: revenge against acts of violence will breed the need for further revenge and more acts of violence.  It is a cycle, an ancient cycle that repeats itself throughout human history.  It pervades the history of the Middle East.  There are examples of it in the Bible.  It fed the war machine that consumed the Greek city states, Sparta, and Persia.  It is chronicled in myths and legends from around the globe.  It is a cycle that, by now, we should be able to see clearly.  Yet, as a species, we seem to ignore it…at least some do.  And it is those few who keep the cycle going.

There is no room for revenge or hatred or blood-lust in my heart.  I only have room for compassion, love, and a strong desire for peace.  I am sure that I am not alone in this.  There are many people on this planet, and many more of them would see this cycle end than see it continue.  Perhaps we will find our voice some day.  

I can only hope that my son never experiences a 9/11 like the one I did…like the one we all did.