Nora Tryon, tryons@adelphia.net

How do you balance terror, hatred, and vengeance?  Life has been irreparably changed since 9/11.  I have tried to come to terms with the storm of emotions that have raged through me, feelings of shock, fear, outrage, numbness, sorrow, and frustration.  The actions of survivors and the responses of ordinary people behaving with simple and unthinking courage, even to the point of offering their own lives to save the lives of unknown others, have filled me with awe.  This breathtaking range of emotions is the essence of what it means to be human.  Life and death, pain and joy, hatred and love, indifference and reverence; these are mythic themes.  The trauma of 9/11 has left us vulnerable, raw, and aware of our mortality and the preciousness of life.  Like the rebirth of a forest after a devastating fire, this is fertile soil for new growth.  This piece is my tribute to the human spirit, to the selfless acts of those who chose to honor all of us by enacting their reverence for life.