9/11

Today I did a couple of things that helped me think about the anniversary of the attacks. First, I watched the broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word. If you didn't see it and can access one of the re-broadcasts, I recommend it. The program was very nice. Some of the images got me teared up a little.

This afternoon my roommates and I went to a program at the university that involved a choir and our city's orchestra. The first half was Mozart's Requiem, which was beautiful, and the second half was a commissioned oratorio that was debuted today. It was also very nice. There were a few speakers, and I really enjoyed the words of one of them in particular.

I also recently watched a clip on Yahoo? about one of the passengers from Flight 93 (I think). From watching that, as well as some of the footage that was played on the broadcast this morning, I am reminded that there were many people who rose to the occasion that day, and I'm glad to be able to take something positive from that awful event. There were the people on Flight 93 who decided to act when they knew something was wrong (I was amazed to listen to calls from a mother to her son who was on the flight, encouraging him to do something to stop the hijackers), and there were so many people who helped at the towers. I was touched by footage of people covered in ash hugging others who made it out. It's easy to be cynical about mankind because there is so much selfishness, corruption, callousness, etc. I believe the 9/11 tragedy brought out the humanity in many people, though, and I think it's good to be reminded of that. It's good to remember what happened and to be reminded of what is really important - God, each other, our nation. I'm grateful for that reminder today.