Posted by
Cynewulf on Monday, September 11, 2006 1:28:47
(The lads are over the Atlantic on their flight home)
Joe: Wow. Five years, huh?
Kells: Yeah. Doesn’t seem that long.
Birhtwold: I don’t know. I think it seems longer.
Kells: What do you mean?
Birhtwold: It seems like everyone’s forgotten.
Kells: Yeah, I’ll give you that.
Joe: I wonder what it would’ve been like.
Kells: I don’t know that I want to know.
Birhtwold: It would’ve been like you’re Craig William Staub, hard at work for your employer, Keefe, Bruyette, and Woods. You’re on the 89th floor of Tower 2. You’re thinking about playing a round of golf, or going dancing with your wife, who’s pregnant with your daughter, or maybe just going out to eat at a nice restaurant with some friends when, boom! Things go crazy. An airplane has hit the other building at your eye level, and you think, I better call my wife and let her know that I’m ok. So you do. Everyone’s running around, not sure what to do. You’re the kind of guy that people go to for help and advice. This time is no different. You help whoever you can on your way down. It’s absolute pandemonium. And you never quite make it out. Maybe you don’t even know what happens, but you don’t make it out. You won’t see your wife, Stacy, of 15 months again. You won’t see you’re friends again. You won’t see your daughter, Juliette, who is born two weeks later on your birthday, September 22. And you’ll wait for them on the other side.
Joe: Which way is New York from here?
Kells (points): That way. Why?
(Joe unbuckles seat belt and stands up)
Kells: What are you doing?
Joe: I don’t know. Moment of silence. Or something. Seemed appropriate.
(Kells, Birhtwold, and Skald stand, heads bowed)
Skald: "I do not possess many powerful friends on earth, but they have gone hence from the delights of the world, sought for themselves the King of Glory. They live now in the heavens with the High Father, dwell in glory. And every day I look forward to when the Lord’s Cross that I beheld here on earth will fetch me from this short life and bring me then where joy is great, delight in the heavens, where the Lord’s folk are seated at the feast, where bliss is eternal."
All: Amen.
Notes:
Craig and Stacy
1. Please take some time today to pray for Craig’s family.
2. Skald’s quote taken from "The Dream of the Rood."