But there is no doubt the whole world has been indirectly affected by that day. Many sensed that that would be the case as we watched the events unfold, but I for one had no idea of the twists and turns that were to subsequently develop.
For those much The reference to Superman refers to the scene in the first Superman film starring the late Christopher Reeve, where the eponymous hero reverses time by flying so fast that he turns the world back on its axis, allowing him to prevent multiple disastrous events. Even we knew back then that that's not how time travel works... We knew that we needed a Tardis to do that!
A quarter of a century has passed
since that day when we all stopped
and watched utterly appalled as
two towers were felled by fanaticism,
jet fuel engulfing those monuments
to World Trade and ultimately
the whole world, in a cycle
of revenge and recrimination,
conspiracy and opportunity
grasped by disaster capitalists.
Even after all these years
new stories still emerge
from the toxic rubble of that day,
some of inspiring sacrifice,
some fabrications, twisted
by the weight of ego, ambition
and political polarisation.
We forget far too quickly,
that on that day almost all
of this now more divided world
stood in tear-stained solidarity
with a temporarily United States,
even universally adopting
their illogical dating of that day.
We cannot put things into reverse,
though some seem to be trying,
in so many different ways.
Superman is no longer here to
turn the globe backwards,
to give us the chance to halt
the perpetrators in their tracks
and so set everything right again,
if they were ever right in the first place,
but at least rebuilding both the towers
and relationships that have been
shattered by the subsequent years.
But what we need is not an army
of macho super heroes, much less
caped, or un-caped, crusaders,
but people truly shaped by the one,
who on an even more momentous day
once buckled beneath a cross,
before being mounted on it
as a terrifying testimony to
the power of politics and religion,
but who urged his Father and,
by extension, his followers, to forgive;
and who in response to previous
bad news about a collapsing tower
and innocent victims, encouraged
his listeners to repent, or change direction,
hearts and minds and actions, lest
their future might be even worse
than what has already happened.
We live two millennia into that future
and still have not listened to his words.
So perhaps it is unrealistic for us
to learn our lessons a mere quarter of a century on.
Selah
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