As September 11th draws to a close here in the eastern states, I’d just like to commend an article written by Peggy Noonan in Friday’s Wall Street Journal on the editorial page. You may have already seen, but in case you haven’t, go here to read it. The piece is called I Just Called to Say I Love You: The sounds of 9/11, beyond the metallic roar. A few quotes are found below.
I think too about the sounds that came from within the buildings and within the planes–the phone calls and messages left on answering machines, all the last things said to whoever was home and picked up the phone. They awe me, those messages.
Something terrible had happened. Life was reduced to its essentials. Time was short. People said what counted, what mattered. It has been noted that there is no record of anyone calling to say, “I never liked you,” or, “You hurt my feelings.” No one negotiated past grievances or said, “Vote for Smith.” Amazingly –or not–there is no record of anyone damning the terrorists or saying “I hate them.”
No one said anything unneeded, extraneous or small. Crisis is a great editor. When you read the transcripts that have been released over the years it’s all so clear.
This is what I get from the last messages. People are often stronger than they know, bigger, more gallant than they’d guess. And this: We’re all lucky to be here today and able to say what deserves saying, and if you say it a lot, it won’t make it common and so unheard, but known and absorbed.
We could do worse in our day to day lives than remember to “say what deserves saying.”
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