Sept. 23, '01

Support freedom

September 11, 2001 changed everything, they say. It’s nearly impossible to deny it.

Never before have so many innocent people died in a foreign attack on U.S. soil. It’s a shock from which we will struggle to recover for a long time.

Often during this tragedy, my thoughts have turned to the British. Those stiff-upper-lip images portrayed so stoutly during WWII come floating to me.

Agatha Christie in There is a Tide begins her novel with a discussion taking place in a men’s club as bombs rain overhead.

It became a way of life for them. They moved through it. Life went on. It’s what our leaders are currently telling us we must do.

Yes, our lives have changed. But change is also part of living.

Daphne du Maurier wrote in Rebecca about change and her desire to return to what was. But she noted, too, that even had we the ability to return to the past, it would not be the moment we remember. Change is constant.

Yet some things are enduring.

In Illinois, the weather is shifting toward autumn as it tends to this time of year. Our maple trees, always the first to display autumn foliage, are repeating their annual performance.

Still, time does not stand still. Our children grow, our bills arrive, our lives go on. And in time, even our pain shifts to something else--something bittersweet but manageable.

God bless those who have sacrificed their loved ones in this time of trouble. And God help us move forward as we must.

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© M. E. Fuller. All rights reserved.