Nineteen years later: 9/11/2020

Nineteen years later, the sadness cuts just as deep, just as painful: the sound of body after body smashing on the ground; mothers and fathers and sons and daughters and sisters and brothers, people loved by someone, who had to choose between death by flame and death by leaping into the abyss. That terrible, tragic sound.

Fingertips held trembling to mouths all over the world as we watched the unbelievable sight: the towers, first one and then the other, imploding into a tangled mess of steel and concrete dust.

The devastating last phone calls: '

"I love you so much."

"Goodbye."

"I love you so much."

Let yourself weep. Let yourself feel. There is no forgetting.

But however we grieve, please let us not be seduced by hatred. Hatred contaminates everything it touches.

Hate destroys human beings: a terrible reaping of hatred sown, hatred nurtured, and hatred grown yields a harvest of terrible pain.

Today, we do not think of who and what spawned this tragedy. Grief this deep has no room, not today, for blame. We know what happened. But sadness this profound reflects only the depth of love for those lost. Today, there is no time for pointing, for punishment.

Today, we simply stand in moments of silence, and tears fall down our cheeks.

Let go of the hate; it will fix nothing. Hate will only sow the seeds of future pain: future bodies burned and smashed and atomized. It will only cause your children or grandchildren to feel the anguish you feel today. Do not impart that terrible legacy to them.

Let us open our hearts to love, so that we may find in that the paty to preventing another day like this ever again.

And let us say, amen.

(originally published 9/11/20)