This is the beginning of a new day . . .
The most courageous thing we humans do is to say "hello" to one another. . .
There is unbridled joy in the mystery that is teaching. . .
Great teachers realize that what
they have
to offer . . .
Tuesday, September 11.
We of
course turned
off the news as soon as 3 year old Jimmy K woke up. I sneak
it on when
he's in the other
end of the
house. I mentioned to Esther (figuring this was safe to talk
about), "They said today
is the anniversary of the signing of the
Camp David
Accord." Jimmy K said, "Tell me what you are talking about."
"Oh, just something on
the news," I said. Insistently, he
replied,
"What? Tell me." "Ok," I said, thinking quickly.
"Today is the anniversary of the day some people signed an
agreement that said
they
weren't going
to be mad at each other anymore. And that's called the 'Camp
David
Accord.'" "Well," says Jimmy, "maybe if there
are two
people, then
one should not do something that the other person doesn't want him
to do,
and then everyone would be happy."
Now there's
a good
idea.
Friday, September 14.
The week
wears on.
Like you, I have been inundated with emails about displaying the
American
flag, wearing
red-white-and-blue today, going outside tonight at 7 p.m. to join
everyone across America in
prayer. I have listened to wise pundits and a
few
idiots. I
have thought "I'm doing ok," and then find myself crying in my car
when I
see a truck driving down the road with a flag
attached to
its side
view mirror. I have felt more feelings of patriotism and
more like
I'm An American than even I expected. I have
wondered
what my parents
felt like on December 7, 1941, and December 8th, and 9th, and
10th, and felt
sadness that my 85 year old
mom can not
remember
how she felt. I have shuddered as those visual images are
replayed
in my mind's eye, often against my conscious
will.
I have
prayed for the people of New York and DC, and for all of us.
I have
felt immense sadness for those in New York for whom
the
immediacy of this
disaster makes it seem to them that what happened on Tuesday
happened to
New York, when in fact it happened
To
Everyone. It was not just New York and DC that were
attacked, it was the entire United States. I have been moved
by the emails I
have
received as Economic
History Association Meetings Coordinator from the Republic of
Georgia, from
Pakistan, from Italy, and from
around
Europe, expressing
the outrage of our sisters and brothers around the world and whose
words
remind me that the terrorist acts on
U.S. soil
in fact
did not happen just to the United States but to the World.
And I have
been brought back to the mundane and basics of
life, by a
3 year
old who simply wants to know why he can't have a cookie right
before dinner.