The Seven Stones Blog

Have you noticed the September 11 remembrances were at a frenzied pace this year? It was as if I was reliving the day over and over again every time I heard a radio commentary or read the paper, regardless of how benign the story was. Over the past week I have heard about the music created as a result of the attacks, the wars, civil liberty debates, comparing and contrasting the decisions, choices and moods of the US after the attacks on Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor and the World Trade Center, what we now read, and watch, the role of the media now versus then, and finally, what President Bush did and did not do or what Obama has and has not done. I have been mostly interested in the commentary of who we now are as a nation, and how the last decade has defined us.

I have been reluctant to add another remembrance to the cacophony of commentary until September 10th when I heard President Obama say that we are actually safer and stronger than we were 10 years ago. My first thought was, “Are we really?” So I took a step back and looked and asked myself: Am I stronger or safer than a decade ago? Are my children, my family or my friends? Are you?

I began my inquiry by reflecting on the past, specifically on the day, September 20, 2001 when then President Bush addressed a joint session of congress. At the time, Time magazine said, “Bush delivered the finest, strongest, clearest, several-times-chill-giving speech of his life.”[1] In this speech, Bush said the word fight six times, war 10 times, freedom 12 times and peace, well actually peaceful three times, twice referring to the teachings of Islam and once referring to the morning before the attacks on the eleventh. There was not one expression about ending suffering, reaching out to mend our rifts or starting a new dialogue about reconciliation.

There was no pause. No moment for reflection. At Seven Stones we would say, there was a stimulus (the attacks) and then our immediate response (war). In our work within exquisite sufficiency we often discuss the importance of the pause – a moment to reflect and consider all options and even the possibility of no outward response. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl says, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” That pause gives us meaning, strength and in my mind safety.

We are defined. Bush went on to say that “. . . this country will define our times, not be defined by them.” I think for those of us who worry about educating our children, finding secure housing and employment or who went to war and have returned physically or emotionally battered and bruised, September 11, 2001 did define us and it continues to define us.

When the planes crashed, I didn’t choose it. The moment chose me, chose us, each and every one of us. The day was personal for me and my family: my sister worked in the World Trade Center at that time. Luckily and unbeknownst to me, she was out of her office of WTC I the moment the second tower was struck. I didn’t breathe while I watched the events unfold on television until I heard she was out of the building and on the sidewalk.

Go shopping. Maybe we all entered a collective sleep where we honored President Bush’s request on September 20^th, “I ask your continued participation and confidence in the American economy.” We did as he asked and went shopping. Shopping for homes we couldn’t afford, buying into the Martha Stewart and Oprah notion of furnishing and styling these homes. Many of us had kids, adopted dogs, got married, bought Prius’ and recycled. Maybe all of that was an effort to keep us distracted and keep us asleep? Meanwhile over 6,000 American troops have been killed[2] and over 45,000 have been wounded. Some web sites estimate a million[3] total lives lost in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our debt is sky high, our economy is unstable and the public discourse in American politics has factions more concerned with their rhetoric rather than what is best for our collective consciousness or our collective futures.

On this tenth anniversary of the attacks I must disagree with the president. No, Mr. Obama, I don’t feel like we are stronger or safer as a country. However, I feel gratitude. Gratitude for all the love that has been created in the world despite our actions. Grateful for the pause and knowing that pause gives me growth and freedom that war never could. I have gratitude for the Tools of Sufficiency that give me the strength to create a context that all is well, that I am enough. Finally, I am grateful that my sister was one of the victims that escaped the World Trade Center ten years ago. For her and the thousands of others that lived through that day may you find peace on this anniversary.