This is a "text only" reproduction of a commemorative segment
exactly as it appeared on September 11, 2001.

BLACK SIDE

Everyone rags on me for not watching the news. I tell them that I do not care to be sucked into the sensationalism and drama that the media continually seems to have us feed into. I express to them my belief that I will always be shown exactly what I need to know for whatever part I am to play. Indeed, quite by coincidence, I was shown more than I ever wanted to have to know today.

A minor outpatient procedure led me to a hospital bed where I had to wait for over an hour in front of a TV early this morning. There I saw the first of the towers already in flames. Then I saw firsthand as the second plane crashed into the second tower. Then the first tower crumbled. Then the second. Even news reporters failed to believe this was really happening.

Beside me was a package I was taking to Fed Ex after my hospital visit which was intended to arrive by 10 AM on Wednesday only blocks away from what is now rubble in New York City. It absolutely, positively had to get there on time. Now it won't. Now it doesn't seem to matter anymore. Inside this package was the manuscript for my next book which gave my views on cultural issues and petty intolerance in this country. Even that seems irrelevant now. In one chapter I even describe New Yorkers to be rude, callous, and brash. I'm going to be so bold as to say it is no longer even possible for that to be true.

I watched you be hurled through buildings. I watched you explode into flames. I heard how you made your final call to your family as you sped toward your final moment. I watched you lose all hope and end your fragile life. I realized you were being flung blindly toward the earth along with the ashes that would bury you alive. I watched you run from clouds of hellish dust and glass. I watched you suffocate. I saw you run for your lives from whatever horrible things could happen next. And to those of you who remain, I watched as you chose between what matters and what does not.

WHITE SIDE

The nation stopped today. We stopped. There was an unexpected pause in what we think is our existence. Did you feel it? Did you see it? Did you get a glimpse of how this is all little more than an elaborate Hollywood movie? Political leaders in business suits fled from buildings in Washington, D.C. Protesters flung down their megaphones and signs with things written on them and joined the political leaders in their destination. The heavens yelled, "CUT!" and we joined in remembering what is really real here. We saw Ultimate Truth if only in that instant. Whether we identify with the black page or the white page, we at last remembered this existence is simply a very engaging book.

If New Yorkers have been callous and brash in the past, if they have ignored each other on the streets, my heart insists with unsurpassed clarity that they saw each other today. They really, really saw each other today. And perhaps even greater, they felt each other today when it became impossible for eyes to see bodies. Even on the West coast, we feel the pain that knows no time or distance. Wherever we are, even halfway around the world, we are weak with so very much feeling.

Can I tell you... you reading this... you looking at these words on your computer screen... can I tell you my heart is sick? Is yours? Grieving is good. Cry. Feel. Release. Transform. Even among these terrible emotions and the unspeakable acts that created them, our hearts and our minds are joining. Somehow, we come to realize today how much we love each other. I love you. I am reminded how deeply I really do love you. I so desperately want no harm or misfortune to befall you. Likewise, you love me. Shock, horror, chaos, shattered hopes and dreams are conditions all of us in our right or real mind hope will never come to anyone.

A nation stopped today. Maybe even an entire world. We felt. We joined. The house lights came on. Our eyes adjusted. We remembered.

Peace and remembrance be with you.

For full image version click here

Return to Mass Exodus article here