"I just started photographing people as they were falling" said photographer Richard Drew... One of those people would come to be known as the Falling Man. Though his identity remains unconfirmed, some believe he was Jonathan Briley, a 43-year-old sound engineer who worked in a restaurant on the top floor of the North Tower. The man fell at 9:41, and Drew caught about a dozen frames of his fatal descent. In one of them, the subject soars earthward in a graceful vertical dive -- arms at his sides; left leg bent at the knee."
http://news.yahoo.com/photographer-behin...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXnA9FjvL...This is one of the saddest photo's I have ever seen (I couldn't post it)... and the story is even sadder, and one that should have never happened. Natural disasters don't carry the grief that terrorism tragedy does, no matter who is to blame. I am still in shock... I have never seen this photo until today. I saw it on the Yahoo News. I sat through the 1 hour and 11 minutes of the video on this part of the 9/11 tragedy...
it helps me understand.
Why bring it up? Because it forces me and everyone to look beyond themselves for hope and solace. Comfort is available, to those who think it impossible. This picture brought back memories of my brother, killed in a car accident... and his being cognitive facing the inevitable. My mother too died a slow death... as I almost suffered that inevitability myself... I bring this up to share a bit of comfort that I was comforted with. Being on deaths door, I have experienced the miraculous... like many who have gone on ahead,
I can only believe they experienced this miracle of comfort too, or that soon after their departure... eternity offers an experience that makes this pale in comparison.
It would seem, God never gives the living dying grace.
Jesus said... "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." (Matthew 10:29-31)
...in this passage the Lord reiterates the presence of God in the time of ones passing, surely if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without the hand of God present, then anyone no matter the situation can be assured of the same.
"The Falling Man" represents many who fell that day... and every day, or die in wars and calamity. These deaths are by no means trivial in comparison, because of the absence of media attention, rather they shed a light of importance on every God given life. This focus on the viciousness of war, can serve us tremendously, if we let it work in us what was worked in them moments before the end. The recognition of the fragility of life, and it's irreplaceable value... that many of us see too often, remote from the very pain that is caused by acts of war. This commands attention... and change.
I am gripped by the final message from the suspected sister of the "Falling Man" who said: "I hope we are not trying to figure out who he is... and more figure out who we are... through watching that" ...it does that, it forces us to figure out who we are. Some day we will avoid this
enemy no longer, and our attention will be on ETERNITY rather than on TIME... "when man goes to his eternal home, and mourners go about in the streets."
Jesus said... "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3)"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." " O Death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:50-55)