Thursday, September 11, 2014

Back Before 9 / 11

Ben's 3rd grade field trip to NYC ~ back before 9 / 11
Ben has been a good photographer since he was 8 years old!
He took this one from the Empire State Building in Spring 1999.
Ben & Mom, visiting Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty
Comment from Tanuja Sheth:
A lovely picture and memory of what once was
and also about how much has been taken away. . . .
Innocence lost . . .

Now You Know the Worst
~To my granddaughters
who visited the Holocaust Museum
on the day of the burial of Yitzhak Rabin
Now you know the worst
we humans have to know
about ourselves, and I am sorry,

for I know that you will be afraid.
To those of our bodies given
without pity to be burned, I know

there is no answer
but loving one another,
even our enemies, and this is hard.

But remember:
when a man of war becomes a man of peace,
he gives a light, divine

though it is also human.
When a man of peace is killed
by a man of war, he gives a light.

You do not have to walk in darkness.
If you will have the courage for love,
you may walk in light. It will be

the light of those who have suffered
for peace. It will be
your light.

by Wendell Berry
in This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems

A few years later, Ben's class had another New York City
field trip -- this time to The Cloisters . . .

and a couple of years after that, a visit to The Holocaust Museum,
but I don't have a picture from that trip.

*****************
Previous 9 / 11 Posts


2009: Not a Normal Day

2010: Poem for Today and Tomorrow

2010: 9 / 11 Retrospective (Fortnightly)

2011: Alabaster Cities

2012: My Country's Heart

2013: On the Eve of that Other Perfect Day

2014: Back Before 9 / 11

2016: The Twain

2019: Who Knew?

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