Seeing isn’t just believing. Seeing is feeling more deeply, justifying our passion…
This day 13 years ago changed us. What we saw changed us. Most of us didn’t witness the exact moment those planes first hit — or at least when the first plane flew shockingly into floors 93-99 of the North Tower. 17 minutes later, when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into floors 75-85 of the South Tower, we saw that. We felt it.
We saw the first responders. We saw the people in the streets, staring upwards, shocked and stilled by the most serious day of infamy the youngest generations have ever known.
And then we saw the buildings fall.
It wasn’t a movie; it wasn’t fiction; it wasn’t any promotion of Hollywood ‘s latest action film. This was real life. And as the beams of those buildings shockingly melted before our eyes — and one by one, each floor gave way — instantly crushing all that remained within — we gasped in unspoken horror and heartache, moved by what we saw. What we saw changed us.
I wonder: why does seeing make such a difference?
Prior to today’s somber remembrance of 9/11, earlier this week we witnessed the news and sports networks once again collide, as their lead stories focused on the behavior of onetime NFL superstar, the Ravens’ Ray Rice.
In February Rice and his then-fiancee, Janay Palmer, were each arrested on an assault charge. A video was released four days later showing Rice dragging her out of an elevator where the assault took place. Rice was indicted; the charges against Palmer were dropped. They soon married.
After allowing the legal system to run its course, the NFL suspended Rice for the first two games of the this season. He played in the preseason still — curiously greeted by a standing ovation from Baltimore fans, who seemed to sense his remorse.
Then this week — seven months later — the video from inside that elevator was released. We saw what Rice did. We knew it before, but this week we saw it. It changed us. Commentator after commentator clamored for more consequences, and Rice was immediately cut by his team and suspended by the league. Yet what was the difference?
We saw it. We saw what happened.
Seeing changes how we feel. It justifies an emotional intensity that often otherwise is a bit more calloused. Seeing, however, does not change what actually happened. It only changes how we react.
It thus brings me back to the whole concept of faith… a concept which has been so diluted in contemporary culture, to the point where so many of us say, “Well, you believe what you want to believe, and I’ll believe what I want to believe, and that will be true for each of us.” That’s not logical. What’s true is true regardless of whether we see it or not.
The wisdom lies in knowing and feeling — being confident and assured — regardless of what we see… embracing truth as truth in absence of our own, eyewitness activity.
Respectfully…
AR