[Paddlewise] Last night

   We went into NYC for a show last night; Joan, my daughter who lives in
Massachusetts, and me.  We'd ordered the tickets some time ago and, in the
context of last week, felt even more strongly that we wanted to get together
-- so we went.  Time and again our conversations rambled, as have all
conversations this week, back to the events of Tuesday and our reactions to
them.  The disbelief and the simultaneous acceptance of the reality.  The
sense that everything has changed, the resolve that something -- but what? --
must be done and that the old rules of engagement are obsolete.  The fragility
of our well-being and the goodness of our love for each other.


  Later, we gravitated toward lower Manhattan.  A few blocks north of Canal
Street we could see the glow of the worklights, illuminating the dust or
smoke.  It was an eerie feeling, something like approaching Chernobyl in my
imagination.  We parked and walked out to West Street.  On the west side were
the lines of TV vans, white and clean and orderly.  Drawn by the light from
the south, we crossed for a better view, to feel closer.  We passed TV crews,
and were careful not to disturb a reporter on camera just five feet away.  No
one noticed us.  We passed mounds of supplies -- bottles, food, not sure what
else -- for the volunteers.  There were lots of people about, and all were
well organized and busy.  No one noticed us.  


  On the east side of the street were groups of people, almost all in their
20s, with candles and signs and flags.  It was 11:30 PM.  As cars and trucks
went northward with their loads of volunteers, firefighters, police and EMTs,
they were cheered by the folks on the sidelines.  We walked south a few blocks
and joined another crowd of people.  More candles, more cheering and
applauding in a heartfelt, quiet way.  Strangely, the feeling so close to that
brooding, unnatural glow, was warm, loving, full of life.  We three hugged,
suffused with that love.


  More than ever I feel that the essence of life is love.  Disrupt the crust
of our routine lives and reveal the caring love just beneath!  We are like the
tiny, so fragile and yet so magnificently powerful shoots of plants that
emerge from the lava just days after the volcano erupts.  We cannot be kept
down because our substance is love.  


   Even our retribution -- may it be effective and comprehensive -- will be
about loving.  What a pity that there are people whose humanity is so
undermined that they are consumed with hate.  In their loss, they inflict loss
on others.  We will defeat this evil so that we may love in peace. 



Bob Volin


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