We Rise (Five Years Gone)

Of course I remember where I was. I was in Virginia…sleeping late because I had a stuffy head and a slight fever. I was mildly dazed when I woke…completely unaware that our nation had been explosively shaken from its malaise…and didn’t really comprehend the scope of it when told.

I sat…wearing the boxer shorts and t-shirt I had slept in…in front of the TV…CNN…mutely taking it all in and still not really comprehending the scope. Not long after I sat down, the second tower to be hit collapsed in a roaring, terrifying, stupefying cloud of acrid smoke, bodies, and debris before I (or the CNN reporters) really knew what was happening.

My body went cold…my soul went numb…and the world…the world was more of a strange and fearful and awful and heartbreaking place than I could ever remember it being before that moment. And I sat there…numb and horrified and angry and, yes, scared…for hours. I must have spoken during that time...I don't remember doing so though...I do remember holding my granddaughter (all of 8 months old at the time) and giving thanks that she couldn't understand what was going on (of course, I couldn't really understand either.)

Five years later the events of September 11, 2001 still seem surreal and unbelievable. I know they happened…I know that thousands of people in the World Trade Center, in the Pentagon, and aboard four jetliners died in searing fire and awful darkness…but it still seems unreal (if someone had told me on September 10, 2001 what was going to happen the next day I would have laughed and told them they had a vivid imagination.)

Five years later…in the wake of the blood and the fire and the thunder of September 11, 2001…we are at war…with insurgents in Iraq…with extremists in Afghanistan…with the nebulous concept of “terror”…with ourselves as we try to balance our aching need for security, our undeniable political biases, and our precious (but perhaps…at least to some of our leaders…sometimes inconvenient) civil liberties.

Five years later…we remember. Five years later…we reflect. Five years later…we stand, bloodied but not broken. Five years later…and on into the future…our hearts remain steadfast…and we rise…

From the smoldering rubble, we rise,
From the well of bitter tears, we rise,
From the night that seemed without end,
From the day blackened with blood and fire,
We rise…

We give thanks for the light,
Prayers for the souls gone abruptly to God,
Thanks for all the magic and majesty
That lingers even in the face of madness.

From the storied cities, we rise,
From the bountiful fields, we rise,
From the crucible of peace and justice,
From the land of the free and the freedmen,
We rise…

(MKW-2001)