REMEMBERING that day
A few weeks after September 11, a songwriter named David Wilcox published a song he had written. The song was called September 12, a reflection of the evolution of violent acts, war and the way history applies itself to our experience. Like so many of David’s songs, it was viscerally honest. And to this day, when I think about that day, I hear that song in my head. “It’s a different kind of peace ‘cause it’s a different kind of war…”
Now we find ourselves in yet another different kind of war and when we attain it, it will be a different kind of peace.
Part of the reason I started The Voyagers Podcast was to contribute to the new kind of peace. We can all do that, right?
In December of last year, I took my family from Maui to New York. My oldest son was in Boston during his trip around the world and we wanted to meet up and give him a hug during the Christmas season. And New York does Christmas so, so well.
Our hotel was no more than 500 yards from the 9/11 Memorial. And I had the strange task of explaining to my younger two sons what had happened and why it was important. My middle son, Noah, was 13 at the time and being my empathetic one, he needed very little storyline before he began to feel it deeply. Walking next to the names cut into metal frame that surrounds each cavernous waterfall at the site where the buildings stood, Noah would reach out and touch them and the father in me almost wanted to tell him that we could leave and he didn’t have to dip his emotional toes in that water.
My youngest, Micah, at age 10 took a matter of fact approach. He wanted the layout and what had happened and what did we do about it. He couldn’t access the level of grief that people were feeling, even then just a few feet away from us.
And for me, having had visited the monument many times, I could feel the trauma of that day. But this time, I held it in my heart and surrounded it with light. The story is still there but I could feel that I had healed a bit. And as I looked around, and as the level of grief we all dealt with was different, I could see that this was the case for many. Healing has taken place.
If you’ve never visited the memorial, I encourage you to make a point of it. It is a tribute to the architects, city council, volunteers and scores of citizens who donated to help the place be realized fully. I wanted to write this small note to say thank you to them and thank you to those who rushed into the fray with no thought of their own safety but only of those who needed rescue.
DGT
