Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground

But what's this 'holy ground' thing - is it a quote?

I'm a freelance sound recordist by trade, and recently unearthed one of my gashed DAT tapes containing an accidental recording of the events as they unfolded on September 11th. Apparently, seconds after the first plane hitting (although I wasn’t aware it had happened at the time), I had just signed for the delivery of some M-S stereo microphones and was testing them on the floor of my lounge by speaking into every part of the polar pattern.

I was disappointed to note that there was a discernible lack of stereo dynamics in my headphones as I repeated ‘left, left, left’ on the left part and then went slowly round the mic set-up, saying ‘mid, mid, mid’, and finally slurring my utterance into ‘right, right, right’ when I reached the opposite pole. All the time I experimented, I was recording, and this is what else I heard when I re-listened to the DAT a couple of days ago, ten months after the acts of terrorism: The telephone rings - it’s my wife, and I can be heard answering. ‘Hi, Babe … … really? … I’ll turn the telly on’.

The television is turned on, the mic rustles tumultuously as I retrieve it and direct it towards the speakers, and Brian Hanrahan can be heard describing, live, how the World Trade Centre has been hit; I then resume … and this is what I found most fascinating when I listened to the recording - I resume my prosaic experiment, saying ‘left, left, left …. mid, mid, mid … ‘; Hanrahan reports that the first tower has collapsed and that the fire crew entering the building have inevitably been killed; I can be heard hesitating for a moment, and then, again, I resume my callous chant - ‘mid, mid … right, right, right’. I evidently had trouble taking it in …

I don't really get the poignancy of the 'sacred ground' quote. Or maybe I just don't get the quote in the first place. It just sounds purple-prosed sentimental. Why would the scene of such evil and misery be sacred?

The quote works for me because it smacks of inclusiveness - perhaps in part because of who wrote it - and it encompasses the sorrow of all the victims of the last 12 months, since 9/11; not just the berieved associated directly with the attacks on the World Trade Centre.

I started this thread moments before the minute's silence; and the qoute's poignancy, again, for me, was not so much that Ground Zero has become sacred, but that anywhere an individual was (ILX board) when they remember is holy ground.

Norma - an eyewash, Hydration’s Daughter -
Rescues me with some mineral water
And a tube of after sun cream.
She must have heard me scream:
‘‘I have no faith ... it stings!’’,
For Hydration’s Daughter also brings
The unity of all things:
A novel by Hermann Hesse.

They suit Hydration’s caress,
But will my sunburnt shoulders suit
The loin-clothed, holy style of dress;
Will the colour clash with the Absolute?
The holy men in the book
Are described as ‘‘burnt by the sun’’,
But, to me, their scabs and blisters look
Much more tastefully done;
My shoulders weren’t burnt in a noble way -
Through self denial or Om.
The sun in the book is the same -
The sun where my burns are from -
But my burns, to my shame,
Were designed and erected
As I bathed unprotected,
Trying to catch a tan.
And, I wish this made me a holy man.
But it doesn’t, I’m afraid.

Likewise, I had trouble taking it in at first. I'd been on a train, coming back from a weekend away, having had very little sleep whatsoever. I was tired, I was hungover, and I only found out about two hours after the first plane hit when I spoke to my parents. I didn't take it in at all... in fact, when someone told me two planes had crashed into the WTC, my first thought was the usual novelty story about some idiot with a hang glider or something. It wasn't until I saw the first tower collapse that it all hit home... even harder when I heard that a friend of mine worked in the South Tower. Thankfully she was alright, but in retrospect those five hours before I heard were among the worst of my life.

It still strikes me as weird though when I think about it... more than the enormity of the destruction itself, was that, at the time, virtually every single person on the planet, wherever they were, was thinking about exactly the same thing. I hope that will never happen again.

I have a feeling that a nuclear weapon will be used but it will be less of a news event than 9/11.

I don't think I agree with Tom, actually.

I've done that on an on and off basis throughout the last few months. A strange sort of reminder of the past, if you like. Avoiding them for now, though.

I was thinking today - aside from nuclear weapons technology, is there any technology developed over the last 50-60 years which has not filtered down to individual use/affordability (stretching affordability a bit perhaps)?

Space flight.

Lance Bass to thread!! (Or OK that Texan bloke who actually did get into space as a private citizen)

Depends on where and when it is used. A few years ago there was talk of "suitcase bombs" -- portable nuclear weapons -- that supposedly had gone missing during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. I had images of a suicide bomber trundling such a device onto the sidewalk in front of the White House and setting it off.

True, but how much would that billionaire have had to pay to buy his own private space shuttle? ;^}