Like Jeremiah, I'm sick of 9/11. I was determined not to tune in to the remembrances, performances, memorials, call-ins, talk-backs, emotional ventathons.
I should have known C Span would be covering 9/11 remembrances live, but I checked out Washington Journal anyway. Listened for a few minutes, then went outside to pick the last of the tomatoes.
(By the way -- the heritage tomatoes refused to ripen properly, though there was plenty of greenery, the stems were strong, etc. A friend diagnosed "too much nitrogen," and suggested I mist the green fruits with a mix of water and cider vinegar. I'll give it a try, right after I post this diary.)
When I went back inside, on the television screen was the Brooklyn Youth Chorus performing the most beautiful rendition of The Star Spangled Banner that I have ever heard. Ever.
The Brooklyn Youth Chorus sang the National Anthem right after an honor guard unfurled a flag that had flown -- and been tattered-- on Sept. 11, 2001 -- that is, at about 7:30 AM EST, 30 minutes into the Washington Journal program, at this link, which has now on YouTube here (and embedded above).
Leave the Bushes/Obama/Bloomberg parade & speechifying; Take the Chorus.
Take their pure sounds into your prana; breathe the sounds of the Brooklyn Chorus into those neurons that have stubbornly -- or inescapably-- retained images of the towers burning. Exhale out of your lungs and your core and your spleen and your precious brain the mala that ten years of reinforcement have planted there.
Those young people in the Brooklyn Youth Chorus have their lives ahead of them. We owe it to them, to our children, to cleanse our spirits of fear and the perpetuation of the images of the burning towers.
Peace begins with us.
The young people in the Brooklyn Chorus must control their breathing to sing beautifully. We must support them by practicing mindful breathing,* in order to live beautifully.
(* inspired by a definition of nirmanu in an old text on Yoga:
nirmanu The Yogic method of cleansing the body in order to achieve perfection in breathing -- that is, in prana, "vital energy and vital air.")
Listen to the children. Work to purify your own life, for their sakes.