Remembering September 11, 2001

On this September day, exactly ten years after the attacks on New York and Washington, and after the deaths of so many that day and afterward there, in Pennsylvania, and later in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere, I, like you, remember and grieve. I was just now listening to a video of John Lennon singing "Imagine," and I mourn that his vision of a peaceful world seems farther away than ever. But watching the memorial coverage on television, I am reminded that most people are still basically good. I am reminded too that music and art and literature are expressions of our individual and shared human experiences and connections, expressions that can be cathartic, comforting, and transcendent. The arts remind us of our higher selves, and they give us courage to go on, and to keep trying, despite all odds, to make the world a better place.