September11 and Forward

I have just listened to the wonderful gospel hymn "Amazing Grace" at the Sept. 11 ten-year remembrance ceremony on television. Like many living so many miles away from the scene of the tragedy, that morning seemed more of a dream than a reality. I had just completed my 7:30 a.m. class at John Brown University that beautiful Tuesday morning when one of my independent study students entered my office. Her name was Casey, and she shared that the World Trade Center in New York had just been hit by a plane. Also, like many others, for the first few minutes I assumed that it was a tragic accident. In another few minutes though, I heard from the noise in the hallway that another plane had just hit the second building in New York. Some students and I immediately rushed over to a colleague's house where we could watch the events unfolding on television and we were soon witnesses to the collapsing buildings, realizing that thousands of people had just lost their lives.

Since that time I suppose I also share with other Americans the reality of the transience of life but also of the importance of the joys of life. Since my retirement from academia in 2006, I have realized every day is a gift with the most important gifts being the time I spend with my children and grandchildren. Those memories include the special as well as the mundane--a family trip last summer to Seattle with my loved ones to enjoy the culture of not only Seattle but also Victoria, B.C., a two week trip to N.Y. overlooking the trade center building site with my daughter and then five-year-old grandson, a few days during spring break with my son and his children to a cabin in Eureka Springs, a late summer vacation to Galveston to the beach, sharing late night meals from Gino's family restaurant and Joe's Crab Shack, and the ever-continuing basketball and baseball games that the grandchildren participate in.

Yes, the wars in the Middle East with Iraq and Afghanistan still continue even after ten years as well as the new crises in practically every country there including Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, and others. These man-made terrors pose new threats each day along with the natural events of nature that have hammered America this year--tornadoes, hurricane effects, floods, hail, droughts, and earthquakes. The world is tenuous and we within it, but let us hug our babies in our hearts each night and enjoy the scant, quickly passing time with them as they mature.