Have you listened? “I hope I live”

The 9/11 recordings are tough to hear…but I’m glad I am hearing them. We’ve forgotten what real heroism sounds like. It is not self-promoting, but selfless – it asks nothing but to be able to move freely to help others. It does not look for blame or escape, does not concern itself with polls, cameras, or how it comes off.

Real heros don’t preen or mug. They simply do the job.

Listening to all of this also brings to mind a video I remember watching on 9/11 or 9/12 – a doctor had been videotaping things and then the buildings began to fall…you could see the images jumble as he ran, looking for safety; he narrates that he is ducking behind a car – he panting, out of breath, clearly frightened but strangly composed and as he ducks we see the image of the bottom portion of a car, the whole picture begins to fill with ash and then blackness, “here it comes! I hope I live! I hope I live!” said the doctor – not shouting or crying, just saying it…I hope I live.

He did, thankfully, while so many others did not.

I have often thought of that doctor, I don’t know his name…how brave and ordinary he was, and how his video helped the rest of us to understand exactly what was happening, had happened, to ordinary people – ordinary heroes – at ground zero.