In her front page article in Wednesday’s New York Times, Anemona Hartocollis reports on the current lives of some of the survivors of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. ”Maimed on 9/11, and Trying to be Whole Again” highlights several men and women who were critically wounded, partially paralyzed, and emotionally transformed as a result of the events of that day. But her article is also a treatise on the human will to survive and to “rebuild a harbor,” as poet Yehuda Amichai once said, long after the ship has gone down.
According to Hartocollis, there is no clear accounting of how many people were injured on 9/11. She reports that $1 billion out of the $7 billion raised was distributed to the injured, including firefighters; a total of 2,680 physical injury payments made in all. Burns accounted for 40 of the 2680 injury payments; no clear numbers are available for the cost of psychological support to families of those who were killed, as well as for those who survived.
What is clear from the testimonies and the stories of the survivors of 9/11 is the triumph of the soul over adversity. Their stories command us to ask: What, or who, is a hero? What is the common denominator among those who managed to escape the struggles of that day, and struggle still to recreate their lives?
According to the ancient myths, the hero is one who is willing to take the first step on a path whose end is uncertain. Like Heracles who bears the misfortunes that the gods have sent him, or Jonah who struggles in the darkness of the belly of the whale, the hero puts himself at the service of whatever necessity arises.
The heroes of 9/11 offer all of us a glimpse of the human heart; their stories of survival include a dimension of vulnerability and the possibility of failing. In rescuing others, or themselves, from an unspeakable fate, and relearning the world in which they now live, the survivors of 9/11 teach us that a hero’s voyage is one of rediscovery. What was lost has to be found: one’s own self, one’s own purpose. Moreover, through their failings and triumphs, survivors motivate all of us to become the heroes of our own story, so that, one day, we may believe in the regrowth that comes out of a fallen world.
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