Where Were You When Noah Built That Arc: Swimming by Any Chance?
I can’t believe 8,000 days have passed since passenger jets were turned into missiles, changing American life when the second plane smashed through tower number two. I remember my parents always talking about where they were when Kennedy was shot – which was replaced by the next generation with “Where were you on 9/11?” I was in Westwood, MA, at Xaverian Brothers High School in the first days of my first administrative post as the Dean of Students. Like many, I walked outside and looked at the sky like I’d see incoming planes. I had no idea what the hell was going on.
What happened on 9/11 made Kennedy, the Marathon, and Oklahoma City things look small. Tonight, just before the 8 o’clock NFL game, Luca (my 12-year-old) and I were lying on the couch watching 60 Minutes. I saw videos of 9/11 that I’d never seen before. He was full of questions. “How could people do that, Dad?” “Dad, they had to know they would die, right?” Then, there was a portion of 60 Minutes in which they talked about the people who jumped from the towers before their collapse. They had close-ups of people falling from the sky. And even worse, video footage of the sound of people landing on a roof above a Firefighter staging area.
The Fear of Pain Beats the Hope for Love and Kindness, Doesn’t It?
I started to think of a question to ask that is like “Where were you when something amazing and life-filling happened?” Not in the personal realm, because that is easy. We remember the births of our children or maybe. saying, “I do.” Ceremonies like graduations, winning games or matches, and walking into your first place that is all your own probably ring a bell. I tried to think of celebrations – well, there is the 4th of July, that’s great, right? Celebrating our independence – commemorating the end of a war. It was a long time ago, so we don’t think about this – but many people were put in the ground before their time. D Day? Celebrating the end of another war – more dead people, lots and lots of them in that one. It started to seem to me like the good stuff is all deeply personal, like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and retirements.
The good times are in the aftermath of the bad – it seems. The dust settles, and there is an “Era of Good Feelings.” I once read a story about World War I soldiers engaged in trench warfare. One Christmas Eve, the opposing sides stopped shooting at one another and met on the mid-ground to have drinks and even sing songs. They returned to their trenches and slept. Then they woke up in the morning and started shooting at one another again. I surmise they did not even know why they were trying to kill each other. But they were soldiers, and they were in the killing business. So, they got to work.
I saw the Passion of the Christ, where Jesus Christ rose from the dead because many people killed him. One cannot rise from the dead unless, well, dead. In The Ten Commandments, Moses split a sea – only because he was running from an army that would kill him and his group. He showed them when the water returned to where it belonged. I haven’t watched it, but apparently, there is a movie on Netflix called Noah – about a guy who has the intuition to build an arc to avoid a flood. A lot of people died in the flood. Good thinking, Noah.
When I was talking to Luca tonight, I was thinking about his operating system. He has so much to be afraid of. Terrorism tonight, North Korea when he watches the news, people shooting him when he is in school, and another COVID lockdown. I talked to him tonight. I always talk to him, but tonight was different. 9/11 reminds us about the types of dangers and people who are out there. How do we overcome it all, though? Teach our kids to box, do karate, wrestle, or get them into an MMA gym. Teach them to think critically and be ready to use their voices, minds, and language to talk about and write about what’s wrong. Or maybe teach them to be kind so they don’t become a part of the mess?
