― Elie Wiesel
My son, who
is almost 8, doesn't understand why people would fly planes into the Twin
Towers. "Didn't they know they
would die, too?"
Today most of
us paused to remember a day that none of us who lived through it can
forget. As Secretary of State John Kerry
wrote to his colleagues -- a day
"like none other."
As a family,
we prayed for the people who died 12 years ago, especially for friends of
people we knew -- two college friends of a dear friend of mine, a friend of my
daughter's English teacher. We prayed
for them and for their families. We also
prayed for Syria.
Kindness
seemed even more important today. What
else could we offer each other -- besides solace and prayers? I was glad for a random string of kindnesses.
Looking for
parking today, I stopped to ask a parking attendant if I could park in what
looked like a space on the street. Yes,
he said, but I would have to pay. Why
didn't I park in his lot, which was free?
And he directed me to a parking spot.
Later in the
afternoon, with several children (mine and others) in the car, I asked my son
to do his homework. A friend of my
daughter's offered to help him and encouraged him to get his books out. An extraordinarily kind and gentle
12-year-old, she spoke to my son as though there was no age difference between
them.
This evening,
my son decided that he was going to make dinner. "I can do it!" he insisted. And, I thought, why not? So his sisters and I waited and watched as he
did his thing and managed to get all of us fed.
As I danced with him later in the kitchen, I hugged him extra tightly
and counted my blessings.
In the wake
of great sadness, there is hope and comfort in kindness.
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