Like everyone I was a bit solemn on Friday, September 11. I will never forget that horrific day of fourteen years ago when it seemed as though we were in the midst of a nightmare that not even Stephen King might have imagined. I remember wondering if the world that I had always known would ever be the same. In some ways I have to admit that it is not exactly as it had been before. The trouble with terror is that it does strange things to the mind. Even though we have essentially gone about our routines for the last fourteen years deep inside our psyches is a kind of fear that did not exist prior to the terrible event that we all witnessed. We want to be our old optimistic selves but that day has taught us to beware.
For a time there seemed to be a great deal of good that followed the attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. We really did appear to come together as a nation. I vividly recall receiving phone calls from family members and friends who just wanted to say that they loved me. My neighbors came out from their homes that evening and we talked in our yards and thanked God that all of us were safe. We expressed our feelings for each other lest we not have the opportunity to do so in a future that seemed so uncertain. We spoke of our country in the most patriotic ways. We related the things that were really important like family and freedom and love. Out of the evil of that day we seemed to be awakened from a state of complacency and taking our lives for granted. Continue reading “Mercy and Understanding”
My mother was never a big fan of royalty. She always declared that she would have a difficult time curtsying to a king or a queen. For that matter she found the tradition of kissing the ring of a Catholic bishop as a sign of respect to be rather absurd. Mama was one of those people who sincerely believed that every human being was one hundred percent equal to every other person who lived on the earth. She did not think that the accident of one’s birth should ever define them. She felt that the trappings of wealth and title were only a veneer and that underneath all of the accouterments we were basically all the same. Strangely, however, she greatly admired Queen Elizabeth, not so much because she was a monarch but because she was a sterling example of a fine lady. 
Long ago when I was still a student at Mt. Carmel High School a priest took a group of us outside on a pleasant spring day. As we sat on a set of bleachers he spoke of a native American idiom, “Walk a mile in my shoes.” He wanted us to consider the other person’s point of view before drawing conclusions and judging. He hoped to develop a sense of empathy in us by setting forth various scenarios and asking us how we thought we would react if confronted with similar situations. What we learned on that day is that we each view life just a bit differently depending on our backgrounds and personalities. Still we share certain commonalities as humans regardless of where we may live. Every human being seeks love, understanding, security, and comfort. We may not have much in common with people from other cultures but when stripped of our economic and superficial differences we all experience hunger, pain, and fear. 
There are no words for this. All the language that I know is inadequate for what I want to express, but for Darren I will try. I can’t describe him with cliches and platitudes – I need to do better than that. He deserves better than that.
Years ago the daughter of a friend was traveling down Beltway 8 on a lovely Saturday morning when the driver of an eighteen wheeler lost control of his rig and slammed into the young woman’s car. The wreckage was horrendous and when the first responders arrived they realized that the passenger in the car was near death. They immediately requested the aid of the Life Flight helicopter which arrived quickly and then transported my friend’s daughter to Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Houston Medical Center. Dr. James “Red” Duke and his team were on call in the trauma center and they immediately swung into action. With a lifetime of knowledge the good doctor used his skills to virtually bring the severely injured woman back to life. Her wounds were so life threatening that in another place and time she might have died. Instead she was under the care of one of the premier trauma surgeons in the world. She lived to tell her story in spite of the odds against her survival.
