I See Fire

 

 

The other day I was interviewed on a radio show, The Wicked Edge, and one subject that came up was the upcoming thirteenth anniversary of 9/11 and my blog, The Surrender, which I wrote some time after the Boston bombing. It made me want to write something now, for this day that brought such agony to the USA, for 9/11 and for all those terrible days that humanity has witnessed and lived through history, the terrible days when we inflict such pain and suffering on one another.

 

But words failed me. What can I possibly say that has not been said already? A picture is worth a thousands words and the photos of 9/11 are burned into my brain. But does anyone really need to be reminded of what it looked like? Does anyone need to be reminded what the tragedy that defined a moment in their time looked like? How can we possibly forget, we who woke from ignorant bliss and sweet slumber to such madness? So no, not a picture today. Instead I turned to music, for so often when words and pictures fail, music and well sung lyrics carry the day - and us - to that place of remembrance in a way words alone never can. 

 

I thought of this song, for when I hear it, I see not only the dwarves and dragon, the hobbit and elves for whom it was written. I see the burning towers of 9/11, I see the ovens of Auschwitz and the bodies on Normandy Beach. I see the trenches of No Man's Land smoking with chlorine gas, the burning ships of Pearl Harbor and the smoldering remains of Hiroshima. I see the genocide of Rwanda and countless other countries, the devastation of wildlife and plant life, forests and rivers, all over the world. I see the suffering of Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, innocents suffering for dogma turned fanaticism fed by the greed and hunger for power that starts wars and commits mass murder to the sound of insane promises.

 

I see determination burning in the hearts of those who would seek to turn the tide, and I see the desperate courage it takes to face such evil as it flies over the land seeking only to destroy that which it covets.

 

I hear the soaring voice of Ed Sheeran and the words he wrote and I, well........

I see fire. Fire that destroys but also, the fire that transforms, and ultimately, heals and builds again.

As we always do.