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Recent News... Just for Pope Gregory... |
2001-11-29 - 11:46 a.m. Reflections of an imaginary hero We had, as many of you have read, a fabulous holiday. (I cannot believe people are actually reading the 15 day epistle of my vacation.) But I did miss my country - more keenly than I might have before September 11th. I was so happy to see the Stars and Stripes flying at the United Airways ramp in Heathrow. The day the plane crashed in New York, almost two months exactly from 9/11, I got the news by reading headlines on the Tube. Panic, indeed - wondering what had happened to my nation - until we got back to Beth's and got the newstory from Michael. As I dug through my email, I found a post from JMS, creator of Babylon 5 and current author of the Amazing Spider-Man comic series. It contained excerpts from the issue dealing with the World Trade Center attack. Byrom mentioned this issue, but the text was so good, I must share ... "Here are two representative sections from the book, which is almost entirely in captions, as Peter Parker surveys the situation and assesses the situation. It is, in many ways, a meditation on the events of 9/11, almost a prose poem at times...the first as he considers the true heroes, the second as he deals with the question, what do we tell the children; the third, later in the book. ******* "But with our costumes and our powers we are writ small by the true heroes. Those who face fire without fear or armor. Those who step into the darkness without assurances of ever walking out again, because they know there are others waiting in the dark. Awaiting salvation. Awaiting word. Awaiting justice. "What DO we tell the children? Do we tell them evil is a foreign face? No. The evil is the thought behind the face, and it can look just like yours. "Do we tell them evil is tangible, with defined borders and names and geometries and destinies? No. They will have nightmares enough. "Perhaps we tell them that we are sorry. Sorry that we were not able to deliver unto them the world we wished them to have. That our eagerness to shout is not the equal of our willingness to listen. That the burdens of distant people are the responsibility of all men and women of conscience, or their burdens will one day become our tragedy. "Or perhaps we simply tell them that we love them, and that we will protect them. That we would give our lives for theirs and do it gladly, so great is the burden of our love. In a universe of Gameboys and VCRs, it is, perhaps, an insubstantial gift. But it is the only one that will wash away the tears and knit the wounds and make the world a sane place to live in. "In recent years we as a people have been tribalized and factionalized by a thousand casual unkindnesses. But in this we are one. Flags sprout in uncommon places, the ground made fertile by tears and shared resolve. We have become one in our grief. We are now one in our determination. One as we recover. One as we rebuild. "You wanted to send a message, and in so doing you awakened us from our self involvement. Message received. Look for your reply in the thunder." ******* As the fighting in Afghanistan drags on, as the ground war turns uglier, pray for the U.N. troops who spend their nights in cold bunkers in a foreign country, so we have the privilege to enjoy our festive holiday in peace and security. � � � 
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