story4529.xml
Title
story4529.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-09-11
911DA Story: Story
MY 9/11/01 EPIPHANY
written 9/13/01 and sent out on email to family and friends
Dear Family and Friends,
Like all of you, I've been struggling to make sense of the events of the last three days. I want to share my epiphany on Tuesday evening as I wound my way home on country roads from the fourth day on my new job at the hospital here in Oxford, Ohio:
In the last three days, I truly think God has given us beauty in ways we don't understand to help us endure our national tragedy. Here in southwest Ohio, we've experienced three of the most gorgeous fall days ever to remind us that the whole world is not ugly and full of horror, and that terror will not prevail.
When I sadly started home to Middletown (about a half hour drive) early Tuesday evening from Oxford, I was appalled by the stories coming from NPR on the car radio. I drove through the peaceful Miami University campus where happy, attractive college kids were riding bikes, running, playing Frisbee and glorying in the spectacular weather on their way home from classes.
As I continued through peaceful, winding country roads to get home, I passed cows and sheep safely grazing, and pretty, white farm houses and barns, with the rolling landscape bathed in deep summer green and the gold of the lowering sun. The beauty of what I was truly seeing for the first time was like a balm against the horrible news spewing from NPR. The more I heard on the radio, the harder it was not to burst into tears, yet the landscape seemed to become more beautiful and safer with every mile I drove toward home.
I drove through Jacksonburg (pop.52) and finally cried like a baby when I saw that this tiniest of Ohio's villages had already hung American flags everywhere on telephone poles, fences, homes, and the general store. Folks were sitting or standing on their front porches and talking to neighbors. It made me cry and rejoice at the same time.
All the way home, the NPR stories of heroism and sacrifice and just plain decency were like sharp rays of sunshine through the black horror of the rest of the coverage. But I was struggling with the terrible juxtaposition of such beauty with such awfulness.
Like all of us, I kept thinking "Why, why, why?"
Then it began to dawn on me that there is beauty in the midst of tragedy and there is hope in the middle of despair, and that all we have to do is look for it and give it. The beauty is our love for each other, and it will heal us all.
I love you all very much, never more than now!
Julie Nickell
Development Director
McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital
5151 Morning Sun Rd., Suite C
Oxford, Ohio 45056
513-664-3850
MY 9/11/02 ONE YEAR REFLECTION FOR OXFORD ROTARY
written 9/11/02 by Julie Nickell
Like many of you, I spent last Sept. 11 trying to understand WHY it happened.
I kept asking, what kind of person, group or culture or religion could breed such hate and loathing?
What possibly could America have done that was so awful to warrant such hate?
How could our nation and culture be so blind to such hate?
I still don?t have the answers, as I don?t believe they are easy or simplistic ones, but I do know this much:
Then only way to combat hate is to return it with love and forbearance.
We must not be defined by the horror of 9/11, but should take this event and redefine it by our good deeds, our efforts to learn about people and cultures and religions different than ours, by reaching out to those who are so foreign to us. We must not be complacent, we must meet hate with tolerance, forgiveness and love. Each of us has the responsibility to take the first steps.
As I was driving over here to Rotary today, it dawned on me that Rotary is a wonderful forum to help combat the ignorance and intolerance that spawned the hate of 9/11. I?m very grateful for the opportunity to belong to an organization that has and will continue to serve its fellow man with love around the world.
written 9/13/01 and sent out on email to family and friends
Dear Family and Friends,
Like all of you, I've been struggling to make sense of the events of the last three days. I want to share my epiphany on Tuesday evening as I wound my way home on country roads from the fourth day on my new job at the hospital here in Oxford, Ohio:
In the last three days, I truly think God has given us beauty in ways we don't understand to help us endure our national tragedy. Here in southwest Ohio, we've experienced three of the most gorgeous fall days ever to remind us that the whole world is not ugly and full of horror, and that terror will not prevail.
When I sadly started home to Middletown (about a half hour drive) early Tuesday evening from Oxford, I was appalled by the stories coming from NPR on the car radio. I drove through the peaceful Miami University campus where happy, attractive college kids were riding bikes, running, playing Frisbee and glorying in the spectacular weather on their way home from classes.
As I continued through peaceful, winding country roads to get home, I passed cows and sheep safely grazing, and pretty, white farm houses and barns, with the rolling landscape bathed in deep summer green and the gold of the lowering sun. The beauty of what I was truly seeing for the first time was like a balm against the horrible news spewing from NPR. The more I heard on the radio, the harder it was not to burst into tears, yet the landscape seemed to become more beautiful and safer with every mile I drove toward home.
I drove through Jacksonburg (pop.52) and finally cried like a baby when I saw that this tiniest of Ohio's villages had already hung American flags everywhere on telephone poles, fences, homes, and the general store. Folks were sitting or standing on their front porches and talking to neighbors. It made me cry and rejoice at the same time.
All the way home, the NPR stories of heroism and sacrifice and just plain decency were like sharp rays of sunshine through the black horror of the rest of the coverage. But I was struggling with the terrible juxtaposition of such beauty with such awfulness.
Like all of us, I kept thinking "Why, why, why?"
Then it began to dawn on me that there is beauty in the midst of tragedy and there is hope in the middle of despair, and that all we have to do is look for it and give it. The beauty is our love for each other, and it will heal us all.
I love you all very much, never more than now!
Julie Nickell
Development Director
McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital
5151 Morning Sun Rd., Suite C
Oxford, Ohio 45056
513-664-3850
MY 9/11/02 ONE YEAR REFLECTION FOR OXFORD ROTARY
written 9/11/02 by Julie Nickell
Like many of you, I spent last Sept. 11 trying to understand WHY it happened.
I kept asking, what kind of person, group or culture or religion could breed such hate and loathing?
What possibly could America have done that was so awful to warrant such hate?
How could our nation and culture be so blind to such hate?
I still don?t have the answers, as I don?t believe they are easy or simplistic ones, but I do know this much:
Then only way to combat hate is to return it with love and forbearance.
We must not be defined by the horror of 9/11, but should take this event and redefine it by our good deeds, our efforts to learn about people and cultures and religions different than ours, by reaching out to those who are so foreign to us. We must not be complacent, we must meet hate with tolerance, forgiveness and love. Each of us has the responsibility to take the first steps.
As I was driving over here to Rotary today, it dawned on me that Rotary is a wonderful forum to help combat the ignorance and intolerance that spawned the hate of 9/11. I?m very grateful for the opportunity to belong to an organization that has and will continue to serve its fellow man with love around the world.
Collection
Citation
“story4529.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 8, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/8587.