Dear John,
Many millions of us remember where we were and exactly how we learned what was going on, that fateful morning twenty-two years ago today. Watching the horror unfold on television, I remembered that a couple of weeks before I had had a flash that something big was about to happen. I could feel it was something after which the world would never ever be the same.
Change the world, it certainly did. And nothing has ever been the same.
The horror of that morning was met today, as on every anniversary of 9/11, with honor and collective grief as we joined our hearts with families and loved ones of those lost. Standing in my hotel room, participating this morning in the moment of silence to commemorate those lost that day, sadness and memory filled the air. It’s that place where we go when we grieve together.
Millions of tears were cried on 9/11 and on the days that followed. The tears continued for months and for years and continue even now. Husbands and wives, parents and children and friends lost violently, unable to say goodbye. Firefighters and police so heroically fell.
Any word we can possibly say or write seems weak in comparison to the enormity of that loss. It’s appropriate that people gather at Ground Zero to simply read the victims’ names, some of the readers now the grown children of those who died that day. Let’s acknowledge the suffering, the sadness, and the memory of those lost.
May they rest in peace.
May their memory be a blessing.
May all who grieve be comforted on this day.
May God’s blessing be upon us all.
Amen
