Your Soul Food for the week of 9/11 Twenty Years Later: Being the Best We Can Be, When the Need is the Greatest
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It is hard to imagine that twenty years have passed since September 11, 2001.
The sights, sounds and feelings of that day and the days that followed are unforgettable for those that lived through it.
This week, let’s honor and memorialize those who struggled and were lost on 9/11- both first responders and helpers as well as victims of the attacks.
In a divisive world, let’s come together in shared support and unity to forge a more perfect union together because of our differences, not in spite of them.
Twenty years later, Covid has made clear how transient and impermanent live can be.
It has redefined “essential workers” and helped us appreciate those that are willing to risk all to keep us safe.
Here are some examples and stories to help us turn our stumbling blocks into stepping stones and will restore your faith in HumanKind.
Courageous!
60 Minutes Remembers 9/11: The FDNY:
On September 11, 2001, 343 members of the Fire Department of New York perished while trying to rescue people trapped in the World Trade Center. Scott Pelley speaks with firefighters who were there that day and the loved ones of those who never made it home.
60 Minutes remembers 9.11: The FDNY – CBS News
Local heroes-
20 Years After 9/11, San Diego Firefighters Remember Recovery Efforts at Ground Zero:
This KPBS News story features one of our hometown heroes and a dear friend and martial arts colleague Sensei Matt Nilsen.
“I was on a forward mission and was on top of the Western Union building the very first night that was looking directly into the pile,” he said. “And I was climbing up on scaffolding and installing antennas and establishing communications for a task force.”
20 Years After 9/11, San Diego Firefighters Remember Recovery Efforts At Ground Zero | KPBS
Heartwarming!
Restoring Faith in HumanKind, and the enormous contrast between the darkness and the goodness…
Operation Yellow Ribbon (Gander, Newfoundland Canada)
As we pause to reflect on the events of 9/11/2001, you’ll likely remember down to the finest detail exactly where you were, what you were doing and how your life was altered that day. This story narrated by Tom Brokaw is about a little town in Canada named Gander, about the people there, and about what they did on 9/11 and in the days that followed.
Human kindness endures…
What you can do-
A guide to honoring 9/11 in Your community:
Things you can do to around 9/11
Other Generous Acts of Service before Self-
The Olympics and Paralympics keep on giving!
A beautiful moment: Paralympic cyclist lauded after slowing to will on another rider
Australian Stuart Jones pauses to encourage South African rider Toni Mould, who was doing it tough in a different race at the Tokyo Games
“At this point I wasn’t going to podium and I knew how hard that climb would be on her own, so I basically ceased my race there and then and put everything into encouraging Toni to climb.”
Your pictures on the theme of ‘Breaking Free’
We asked our readers to send in their best pictures on the theme “breaking free”.
Here are some remarkable pictures we received from around the world.
Your pictures on the theme of ‘breaking free’ – BBC News
Thanks this week go to all our neighbors relying on neighbors, Matt N as emblematic of all our essential workers, Bob C for the Gander story, and ALL OF YOU that choose service before self.
Please pay it forward!
Love,
Neville
“I am larger, better than I thought,
I did not know I held so much goodness”
–Walt Whitman, ‘Song of the Open Road’
Happy Soul Food Friday! 