Thoughts on 9/11, 7 years later

When I think of that day I think of how easily it could have been me. They chose a United flight from Newark to San Francisco. If four days earlier they had chosen a Continental flight from Newark to Oakland it would have been me. I don't know if I would have been as brave as the heroes of United 93.

I also think of my late grandfather, who was the most calming voice that day. I was visiting him and my grandmother that morning. Aunts and uncles were panicked, Grandma was beside herself. But Grandpa, a man who had lived through the Depression, remembered December 7, 1941, nearly lost his feet to frostbite during the Battle of the Bulge and landed on Okinawa after the main invasion, he sat back and throughout the day coolly repeated a verse from Ecclesiastes: "There's nothing new under the sun". He had been through it all before, seen the horrors of hate and war, knew the resilience and resolve of the American people, and counted in all things on the justice and mercy of the Lord. He has since passed, but I was so blessed to be with him that day.

That Sunday, at my father's suggestion, we sang a hymn I have held close ever since (Hymn 573):

Father eternal, Ruler of creation,
Spirit of life, which moved ere form was made,
through the thick darkness covering every nation,
light to our blindness, O be thou our aid:
thy kingdom come,
O Lord,thy will be done.

Races and peoples, lo, we stand divided,
and, sharing not our griefs, no joy can share;
by wars and tumults love is mocked, derided;
his saving cross no nation yet will bear:
thy kingdom come,
O Lord,thy will be done.

Envious of heart, blind-eyed, with tongues confounded,
nation by nation still goes unforgiven,
in wrath and fear, by jealousies surrounded,
building proud towers which shall not reach to heaven:
thy kingdom come,
O Lord,thy will be done.

Lust of possession worketh desolations;
there is no meekness in the powers of earth;
led by no star, the rulers of the nations
still fail to bring us to the blissful birth:
thy kingdom come,
O Lord,thy will be done.

How shall we love thee, holy hidden Being,
if we love not the world which thou hast made?
Bind us in thine own love for better seeing
thy Word made flesh, and in a manger laid:
thy kingdom come,
O Lord,thy will be done.

Laurence Housman (1865-1959)