Pebbles on the Edge

Pebbles on the Edge
Lake McDonald, 2014

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Remembrance of Nine-Eleven

Above the Stillwater River, Montana


I am about as far from the Twin Towers as it is possible to be, although in 1970 I was in New York City when the towers were being built. I think I saw them...

I was on my way to work that day at the frame shop...later I could only watch  in horror as the planes flew into the buildings, and I could only watch once.

As I listen on NPR to the ceremonies happening and the comments being made today at Ground Zero, I am often moved to tears by the simple and poignant words spoken by those who survived, and those who lost loved ones on that day, in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. I too remember all of those lost since: soldiers and civilians and inhabitants in Afghanistan and Iraq, on the streets of our cities, in Somalia, Libya, Africa--everywhere that people lose their lives to senseless violence, and there is so much of it in the world.

Ten years ago--how time moves us through our lives, as we remember those we've lost, greet those being born, contemplate the lives we have, the goodness of people juxtaposed with the evil of people. As human beings we each have both of these within us--the brightest and darkest of impulses. And part of being human, I suppose, is learning to discern between these, and all their shades of gray, and choose our journeys on the myriad pathways through life. They lie before us like the convoluted, shifting streams of a river delta, confusing, misleading, intertwined. And despite how it looks to us small beings, who believe we are each alone in our little rivulets, each of these streams is connected in some way to all of the others, and eventually they all lead  to the same ocean.

I am changed by the events of 9/11--every one of us is, in countless ways; altered in ways that cannot be exactly articulated, and perhaps have no need to be articulated. 

Life goes on. It continues inexorably, until we are gone and dust, and even then it goes on without us.


"Arise soul
soar above the singing river
go lying down into the ground
quickened by the stream
when all is said and done
the race moves on."   Runrig, from Running to the Light



"Eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters."  

Norman Maclean A River Runs Through It


Primordial ripples from the basement of time, Missoula, Montana, 2007


In the end we are dust.

2 comments:

Reel Action Media said...

Hi Ms. Weatherspoon. I'm a filmmaker and I need a picture of the Castle Museum in White Sulfur Springs. I found your April post containing a great picture and was wondering if I could use it in my short film about Showdown Ski hill which is about 30 miles north of White Sulfur.

My email is henryh@henryhharrison.com . Could you please let me know if that would be ok? I'm also on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=564784403 if you are worried about email spam. Thanks so much.

Henry Harrison

Eilidh said...

Hi Mr. Harrison. Thanks for asking to use one of my photos in your film. You have my permission to use the picture of the Castle Museum in White Sulfur if I'm credited as owner of the copyright. Please also spell my last name correctly: it's Weatherson; there's no "spoon" in my name. :o) If this film is a blockbuster, I expect some royalties! At least I'd like to see it someday. Thanks!