The past and the future meet

for only a moment, and now, deep in winter's darkness, we need to take

a moment to pause and consider where we've been and where we're going.

Last New Year's Day will stand

in the part of history we will always divide between before or after Sept.

11.

We don't even need a calendar

to tell us which Sept. 11. It will forever be the watershed in the lives

of all who lived through it, marking the end of the time when we believed

we were safe here between two oceans. Marking the beginning of a time

when it finally dawned on us that we are despised by some of the world's

inhabitants.

Last New Year's Day, those

among us who had a rough year in 2000 looked forward to a year full of

new chances, a clean slate on which to write our dreams and aspirations.

Last New Year's Day, we stood

as blind to the future as we are today, never dreaming that jobs would

disappear, marriages would crack, loved ones would be taken from us.

That we would be at war.

When something terrible happens,

we seem to believe that a meticulous dissection will somehow shield us

from ever experiencing tragedy again.

We know so much more about

bullied children and how they behave that we honestly believe we can prevent

school shootings.

We add layer upon layer of

protection on ourselves until we believe work place massacres are behind

us.

We study every nut and bolt,

every seam on an airplane and think we've covered all possibilities of

equipment failure.

We inoculate and eat carefully

and take vitamins and believe we have safeguarded our health.

And then we stand on that pinnacle

where we can see what's behind us but not at all what's in front of us,

and we stride forward into the mist, confident that we've covered the

contingencies and life will be better.

Last New Year's Day, our nation

was divided by the most bizarre election in American history. Last New

Year's Day we took our first steps into a future no American could have

imagined in his worst nightmare.

To our credit we came through

the horrors a better people, a unified nation. I think we are less likely

to take our loved ones for granted, and more appreciative of public servants

like firefighters, law officers and postal workers. The stars and stripes

have emerged from closets and store shelves to signal an unprecedented

upsurge of patriotism.

And here we are again, about

to plunge into another year of the unknown. I have to confess, I am not

so confident as I once was that we can handle whatever we find behind

the veil. After 2001, we can never say never.

Will our post-Sept. 11 solidarity

continue? Will all those who rearranged their priorities stay the course?

Will those who recommitted to friendship and family hold tight to their

pledges?

Our brave new world of security

in airports and courthouses and New York ferries will eventually cease

to startle us. Differing opinions on how to achieve safety ­ to vaccinate

or not, to institute a national I.D. card or not ­ will divide us,

but not fundamentally.

And the hearts that are broken

this New Year's Day will begin to heal. Yes, they will.

Some things are certain: We

can learn from the past, but we can't change it. We cannot predict the

future, and can only try not to carry our old mistakes into it.

And so it comes to me in a

blaze of epiphany, the realization that the past and the future meet for

only a moment, and we call it Now.

The Now we can deal with. We

are strong enough, wise enough, brave enough to cope with the moment in

which we are living now.

We can accept the inconveniences

of this new world just for now. We can bite back the cutting word that

hurts those we love ­ just now. We can smile again, when we thought

we'd never smile again ­ now. We can stand up straight and walk into

the unknown world ahead ­ now.

And just for now we can ponder

the eternal truth that nothing can separate us from the love promised

to us by the Creator of all time, past and future.

Now is all we have.

Thank God for now.

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