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.