Cosmo
09-11-2011, 19:51
It’s been a rough week. Today, if I saw another guy with a NY accent telling me “they were just doing their job”, or see another steely-eyed widow saying when she saw the towers go down, “I knew he was gone”, or some beautiful child saying “daddy was smiling from heaven”, I was going to puke. It was time to get out from in front of the TV and someplace away from the constant drivel of somber talking heads and strangers demanding that I “Never Forget” (as if I could).
I picked the most remote part of the Trail I knew (remote in Mass is relative--a couple of hours hiking between road crossings it what we got). I headed up the hill from Jerusalem Road in Tryingham into Beartown State Forest. As I crested the top and the trail worked back down a deep bowl on the other side, I became aware of a huge silence. All I could hear was my own breath and my feet hitting the footpath. Sounds from the Pike were cut off, there were no bird sounds, even the wind had stopped blowing—and strangely (and briefly worrying), no planes were with in earshot for many minutes. It had been a while since I was immersed in so much peace.
In that quiet, I reflected on the monstrous acts that befell the world 10 years ago and the subsequent events that they precipitated—the thousands more souls lost, the resources spent (squandered?), hateful words discharged like more weapons from all quarters. How lucky for most of us here that life goes on in a semblance of normalcy. We still have a place to go to in troubling times, the means to get there—and the freedom to do it. Regardless of our feelings regarding the actions of this and other countries over the past decade, give thanks for the best of what we have: brave citizens, beautiful places, brief moments of peace. Thank you.
Apologies for imposing my own somber drivel--but I feel better for having shared it,
Cosmo
I picked the most remote part of the Trail I knew (remote in Mass is relative--a couple of hours hiking between road crossings it what we got). I headed up the hill from Jerusalem Road in Tryingham into Beartown State Forest. As I crested the top and the trail worked back down a deep bowl on the other side, I became aware of a huge silence. All I could hear was my own breath and my feet hitting the footpath. Sounds from the Pike were cut off, there were no bird sounds, even the wind had stopped blowing—and strangely (and briefly worrying), no planes were with in earshot for many minutes. It had been a while since I was immersed in so much peace.
In that quiet, I reflected on the monstrous acts that befell the world 10 years ago and the subsequent events that they precipitated—the thousands more souls lost, the resources spent (squandered?), hateful words discharged like more weapons from all quarters. How lucky for most of us here that life goes on in a semblance of normalcy. We still have a place to go to in troubling times, the means to get there—and the freedom to do it. Regardless of our feelings regarding the actions of this and other countries over the past decade, give thanks for the best of what we have: brave citizens, beautiful places, brief moments of peace. Thank you.
Apologies for imposing my own somber drivel--but I feel better for having shared it,
Cosmo