Sabbath Reflections

It's Sabbath. It's also September 11. It's my eldest brother's birthday. It's also 9/11. I am feeling very conflicted today. You would think I shouldn't be, after all doesn't the personal and the spiritual trump the distant and the tangible? And if it does, why that funny feeling in the pit of my stomach at the mention of 9/11?
I guess it boils down to seminal national moments that change the hue of so many other moments that come along years after the original. For those of us old enough to accumulate such events, we can probably number them on one hand. For me the list includes the John F. Kennedy Assassination. I remember coming home from 1st grade in Redlands, California and seeing my mother crying in front of our tiny black and white TV- 1963. The next is the Challenger Explosion. The Seminary. Berrien Springs, Michigan. 1984. I ran back home to Maplewood Apartment D-74 like a madman when I heard the news. The images will forever be seared in my mind. The third is September 11, 2001. It was my first year as principal at Orangewood Academy, in Garden Grove, California. I was walking off the Metrolink train and overheard people talking about a plane accidentally hitting one of the Twin Towers. I got to school after the second plane had struck and it was clear this was no longer an accident. I went through a myriad of emotions that day. I didn't have much time to process. The safety of my students was a priority. Many tears and silent moments of corporate reflection were shared that day and for days to come. The events of that day consumed the conversations of young and old.
I can recall minute and otherwise insignificant details of those days. Which brings me back to my original thought-- what trumps what? Will there be a time when those infamous days will fade under the avalanche of emotion associated with another monumental day? I have to believe so. When evil, in all its forms and guises (foreign and domestic), is banished forever and the Kingdom of God is no longer a future longing caught between the blessed hope and the cruel reality of an imperfect and chaotic world-- now there is an event that trumps everything. Until then--I will trumpet and live out the principles of love for all that define that other-worldly kingdom while I pray that eternity-breaching day and the King who made it possible, will arrive soon.
By the way-- Happy Birthday, Ernie. And Happy Sabbath to the rest of you.