Nate's Monday Morning Message Volume 1,181

Sep 11, 2023

Nate’s Monday Morning Message Volume 1,181

Welcome to this week’s Monday Morning Message! Of all the Mondays in the year, this day is a difficult one for me. I will never forget the exact moment when I learned of the attacks on 9/11, as I am sure is true for you too. On this 9/11 let us remember the sacrifices of Americans and service members on the day that is forever burned into our hearts and minds. September 11, now recognized as Patriot Day, we will stand together and proclaim, “never forget.” Take a moment today and remember the fallen – may we never forget.

ENCOURAGEMENT CORNER

September 11th: A Poem

Might it be, as my mother said to me on this ugly, sinful day,

That the world is on its last go-round?

Hijacked wild birds strip the sky of its innocent morning breath

Steel towers crumple like playing cards on an uneven metal table

Unrehearsed screams we dare not hear leap from windows

Into the open, bottomless palms of God

I cannot stand to watch life reduce

Itself to powdery dust and soot lathering the devil’s inflamed mouth

But I am fixated on the television anyhow:

Is this what slavery was like?

Is this what the holocaust was like?

Is this what famine is like?

Is this what war is like?

Is this how you felt, dear mother, when King and the two Kennedys were killed?

I want to stitch up the sky, deny humans the right to fly

Cry until my tears have washed hatred

From the mildewed underarms of history

And I want to say to the firemen

Ah, yes, the firemen:

Your husband, your father, your brother, your uncle, your friend

Thank you for speeding to the end of

Your time and thank you for showing us that

Courage is a soul so unselfish it would

Scale a collapsing building to liberate a stranger

Even as your blood relatives wonder if you are alive —