Couldn’t help be struck with the stark contrast between your 9/11/01 and ours. My son and I had spent the day far out in remote Wyoming back country, working on a long-term project that we hope will eventually help us all to be more “gentle to ourselves once again,” as you put it. We hadn’t seen a single other person all day; only our normal friendly companions – a few small herds each of antelope and wild horses. It was pleasantly warm, the air was fresh and clean. It was as quiet as only uninhabited back country can be, the only sounds having been a few warning cries from one antelope to another that we were there – an odd sound sort of in between a crow’s caw, a goat’s bleat, and a sheep’s baa.
We finished work, drove back into town, and stopped to get our mail. A pickup truck parked next to us had its radio on, and we started to hear something unbelievable about buildings in New York collapsing after planes had crashed into them; and about the Pentagon burning after getting hit the same way. I thought, “Is this some modern version of Jules Verne’s “War of the Worlds” broadcast? It can’t be true!” We turned our own radio on; then got home and turned on our TV (with its one channel). It was all too true.
To have been where you were? It’s so hard to even imagine, let alone fully grasp, even though I’ve had my share of “being there” times too.
- Pete A.

As a privileged New Yorker, 9/11 2001 may have marked the beginning of my personal realization that I am not in control. Ultimately, that’s been a truly freeing thing. Thank you for the reminder.

A friend of mine once said – avoid memorials – they are where the next violence starts. That little line has echoed again and again over the last 6 years. Is it true?

What a beautiful entry. Thanks.
Yesterday I found myself in discussion with a homeless man in Santa Monica who experienced the 9/11 attacks as a pedestrian in Manhattan. Tears swam in his eyes as he told of wrapping a towel around his head against the smoke, and encountering two women screaming for his help.
Thinking quickly, he banged on the door of a local grocery until the shopkeeper finally opened up. He ripped open a package of diapers, a decent filter for the women to breathe into. He is a sort of hero.
He’s also homeless, and an alcoholic. The kind of alcoholic who can’t stop drinking – not because of will power – but because if he goes too long without a drink his body will succumb to seizures. He can’t afford treatment, doesn’t know how to find help. Used to be a successful cameraman working for CBS news in New York.
“Life is never in our hands to control.”
-D
The Buddha Diaries

I appreciate your statement, David, but at the end it verges toward theodicy, IMHO — which can’t be very comforting to the loved ones of the 3,000 mourning today.

I, too, remember.
My daughter and I were in New England for a reminiscent vacation. On the way up, we remembered happy family times together and once again gazed in wonder as we passed the beautiful twin towers.
The next day, everything changed. The beautiful little town of Rockport, MA where we were staying was changed into a village where black crepe draped many of the shop windows. We prayed late into the night at the beautiful church known as Old Sloop and listened to the muffled sobs of the local people.
We couldn’t bear to stay, and so we left, driving back the same route. This time, all we saw in lower Manhattan was smoke from the still smoldering ruins of the towers.
However, we were heartened and inspired by the displays of true patriotism as flags, homemade banners and signs appeared over bridges and overpasses. We were one — all in this together.
How different that was from the forced and phony “patriotism” displayed by those (never without their perfunctory flag lapel pin) who seek to divide us, calling those who disagree with their ideology, “unpatriotic.” And now, we’ve lost more people in the ill-advised Iraq debacle than were lost on that fateful day. Well, at least Gen. Petraeus re-informed the American people that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Small comfort.

I really appreciate your conclusion, Looking our for each other was the only important change that day needed to bring and the only change we needed to make in response.

I think what stands out for me was the fact that the first reaction was to call home. I was in college at the time, and just remember that everyone called their families; most of us were a long way away and it was nice to touch base with those we loved.