
Never Forget
“Save Us from the Time of Trial.” The Lord’s Prayer
Jason Gay has a fine article in the Wall Street Journal about a skyscraper climb of One World Trade Center. Nearly 1,000 friends and family of the first responders who died at the Towers on 9/11 came to climb the new Tower and to remember. On the 2,226 steps, the climbers create a secular ritual of remembrance; Sunday was the second annual climb. What meaning did climbers make of the loss?
- The first responders knew they might die on 9/11, and they went up the stairs anyway. Survivors remember people who called forth courage and generosity in their moments of trial.
- Evil did not prevail. Many people were saved.
- The climb is a fundraiser. “We never forget, by doing good,” said the brother of one of the firefighters who died.
- The climb gives survivors hope. Gay quotes one climber saying, “When we talk about the younger generation, it’s often negative – ‘It’s not like the old days,’ and all that – and I beg to differ. I saw the younger generation in the stairwell, doing the right thing, in the memory of the innocent.”
HOR: Create rituals that help us remember and make meaning.