Sophie is taking the IVIG infusions well on the third day. She has one more treatment tomorrow and is then off for a month. Nurse H is a lovely person. I have learned so much about her life as a Korean immigrant and much about her now-grown children and her grand-children. She has shared some very personal things with me, and that is fine. She sits curled up on Sophie's bed, not much bigger than Sophie but holding so much quiet strength and faith and purpose. I found myself sitting quietly with Sophie, my anxiety lessened for the first time in many weeks.
It's still 9/11 and I'm still remembering the restaurant workers my husband knew who threw themselves out of the burning building and fell 102 stories down. I'm remembering all the brave firemen and women, those who perished while trying to save others. I'm remembering the 2976 innocent Americans who died that day, and the 48,644* Afghanis and the 1,690,903* Iraqis and the 35,000* Pakistanis who have also died as payment for crimes they did not commit. A life is a life is a life.
Rosh Hoshanah
i bear witness to no thing
more human than hate
i bear witness to no thing
more human than love
apples and honey
apples and honey
what is not lost
is paradise
Lucille Clifton, from
September Suite, 2001
*Numbers dead are estimates
What an intense and beautiful photo of Sophie.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes. A lot of precious life.
It would seem that life is cheap to politicians and leaders, and yet I'm sure they value their own lives. I find human beings to be such conflicted, confusing creatures, even myself. Especially myself.
ReplyDeleteWe're a brilliant, beautiful species with an unfortunate crazy streak of savagery.
ReplyDelete"A life is a life is a life."
ReplyDeleteAmen.
Sophie is beautiful.
Dear Elizabeth, thank you for your reflections here. It is true that many people who had nothing to do with 9/11 paid, and are still paying for that day. Sophie looks very present, yet intensely inward looking. Such intense and beautiful eyes.
ReplyDelete"... holding so much quiet strength and faith and purpose."
ReplyDeleteThe photograph of Sophie, your words, and the poem by Lucille Clifton feel sacred and ceremonial to me, especially in the context of September 11, 2001
my thoughts, entirely
DeleteA life is a life is a life. Simpler words were never written and yet bringing it into daily life eludes us. Will we ever get it?
ReplyDeleteSophie's gaze in that lovely image is penetrating... and her countenance shows no sign of the incredible suffering she has endured, you have captured her strong Spirit thru the Eye of the Lens.
ReplyDeleteSo much intense life in her eyes.
ReplyDeleteIn our parliament, in a heated live debate about the usual stuff (populism, blaming foreigners/refugees for all things that are conceived as wrong etc.), one elderly member quoted article one of the German constitution:
"Human dignity shall be inviolable."
I'm thinking about the 4600 Puerto Ricans who died during Hurricane Marie. Donald throwing paper towels at the crowd.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Sophie.