When I woke up this morning to make a cup of coffee, my wife was talking with our two daughters (9 & 13 years old) in our dining room about what happened on September 11, 2001.
She shared a quick thumbnail as our children ate cereal and then scrambled out the door to school. As a friend’s car whisked our kids away, I paused, immediately transported back 22 years as if 9/11 had just happened.
A few weeks ago, our family visited the tip of Manhattan Island just blocks away from the site where the Twin Towers stood, crumbled, and smoldered with thousands of lives sealed inside. Millions of us watched in horror around the world, wondering in disbelief if this was really happening. Today, our children see a city brimming with tourists and business people humming back and forth.
Every September, it is hard to explain all of what happened before and since to the post-9/11 generation (i.e. our kids).
A few years ago, my daughter’s teacher shared this short piece from Brian Doyle (1956-2017). Doyle was a Portland-based author who had enormous gifts as a poet, novelist, and essayist.
In 572 words, Doyle painted a stunning snapshot in an essay entitled “The Leap” to render the raw, indescribable scenes that played out after two planes struck the towers.
He imagines the perspectives, thoughts, and heroic acts of the people trapped inside.
Doyle’s essay does not try to explain what happened that day, he takes no side or makes no political statement.
He just tries to empathize.
Every time I read Doyle’s essay, his words make me feel, think, and hurt for every soul that was lost in the Twin Towers and the two planes that crashed in Washington D.C., and rural Pennsylvania.
Like Doyle, I strive to “hold on” to the memory and lives of the many people lost on 9/11 when my kids ask me about what happened 22 years ago today.
Here is Brian Doyle’s essay, “The Leap”.
Here is an audio version of Brian Doyle reading “The Leap”.