As we remember the darkness of September 11, let us also remember the light. The late poet Wendell Berry offers fittingly poignant words in a 1995 Sabbath poem with the inscription: "To my granddaughters who visited the Holocaust Museum on the day of the burial of Yitzhak Rabin." The poem was included in the book This Day: Sabbath Poems Collected & New, 1979-2013.
May we remember the light.
V (1995)
Now you know the worst
we humans have to know
about ourselves, and I am sorry,
for I know that you will be afraid.
To know of our bodies given
without pity to be burned, I know
there is no answer
but loving one another,
even our enemies, and this is hard.
But remember:
when a man of war becomes a man of peace,
he gives a light, divine
though it is also human.
When a man of peace is killed
by a man of war, he gives a light.
You do not have to walk in darkness.
If you will have the courage for love,
you may walk in light. It will be
the light of those who have suffered
for peace. It will be
your light.
~ Wendell Berry