The Rising

Ten years ago the tragic events of today inspired Bruce Springsteen to write some incredible music dedicated to the victims and heroes involved in the cowardly attack against innocent people. I've been listening to that album--'The Rising'--all weekend. I highly recommend the whole album, especially the songs, "You're Missing", "My City of Ruins", "The Rising", and "Into the Fire". These four sum up the feelings of sorrow and resolution felt in every American's heart that day. The common theme is right in the album's title--to rise after being beat down. In "My City of Ruins" he sings, "Rise up!" and "With these hands I pray for the faith Lord, I pray for the strength" and in "The Rising" the chorus goes, "Come on up for the rising, come on up lay your hands in mine". And the chorus of "Into the Fire" (specifically about the firefighters) is a prayer that "My your strength give us strength, may your faith give us faith, may your hope give us hope may your love give us love." Again, I would highly recommend listening to these songs. If not to rekindle the feelings we felt after the events of 9/11, to cheer up the heavy hearts we are all feeling in our current day and age.

Yes, ten years following the disastrous terrorist attacks on our country we seem to be falling apart all over again. Faith in and approval of our political leaders is much lower than it was in 2001, and it seems that we are running out of hope. Have we fought terrorism. Yes we have. Are people afraid of terrorism? More than they were Sept. 10, 2001, but less than they were Sept. 12, 2001. Terror is not our number one priority anymore. We even caught Osama bin Laden this year, but even that wasn't enough to lighten everyone's spirits through this time of economic turmoil. What we need now is a rising. The media is painting a dismal picture of the future and the people are buying it. Honestly, it doesn't look good, but it didn't look too great ten years ago, either. So I think we need to follow the same recipe for success in raising the nation's spirits.

1) Go out and buy a flag and fly it-the first part of having faith in the future is to at least look like you do.

2) Listen to The Rising-Those lyrics have the same power for us now. Did we feel beaten the week following 9/11? No, we felt like we could take on the world (and we did, sort of). We felt like Toby Keith did when he sang "The Angry American," we felt like Bruce in The Rising.

Will these solve our economic crisis. No, but they should make us feel a little better about things. I listened to "Into the Fire" a lot when I was looking for a job, and it did make me feel better about the situation. Some nights I would listen to "My City of Ruins" and that would make me feel better about going to bed after a day filled with applications, rejections, and no new leads. It's hard to go to bed without hope. 'For if ye have not hope ye must needs be in despair' (Moro. 10:22). Sometimes I woke up feeling like the song "Empty Sky" but got out of that funk because I knew "The Rising" would come and "a dream of life comes to me like a catfish dancin' on the end of the line." This is the dream that we must learn to dream again. It is the American dream, but it can only be brought to pass by a rising.