Reflections on the Twin Towers

Palden Jenkins

October 2001

See accompanying article on WTC

The underlying theme here is ordinary people and our vulnerabilities and human qualities, highlighted by the megamachine bulldozer and the shattering of glass walls. Many of the survivors of WTC were themselves core servants to the megamachine, whether they knew it or not, and now, many of them are 'demoted' by circumstance into mere vulnerable humans - victims with tears in their eyes.

I remember, 11-12 years ago, when the Soviet Union was falling, writing about 'perestroika' (restructuring) and 'glasnost' (openness) applying not just to USSR. Remember, the key event which really changed things in USSR was the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 - which shared some characteristics with the recent one in NYC (technology, human error, things gone too far, massive knock-on effects). Yet the West self-assuredly claimed a victory back then.

Perestroika in the West might now be missed - again. This would be okay if it were just a window of opportunity opening and then shutting, but it isn't, since choices-not-made still have consequences. The terror issues before us today are the result of decisions-not-made earlier - twentyish, fiftyish and eightyish years ago in particular. There's a fundamental planetary-redemption issue at stake here - and in this we all are involved.

It's directly parallel to the Big Decision needed in relation to crop formations - a decision which says "This is something important, from which we must learn, offering a frontier to the future - whether or not we can justify it, whether or not we know what happens next". No one had proof that California would become rich and successful when the first pioneers started out across the Plains and Rockies. No one visualised Los Angeles, Hollywood and Silicon Valley. They just went forward - often driven by despair and hope. They did it, against many odds, without looking back East, without obeying those who would dissuade them.

Recent events have a knock-on effect worldwide: they pose the sharp-edged question "forward or back?". The middle ground is a place of lostness, where the cost of holding to safe non-committal grows larger. We neither know what lies before us and what it will demand, nor the full price of hanging back. Then there comes a point where history's mighty axe comes down, separating those who went forward from those who hung back, and changing the landscape. And the deed is done, and future history is changed.

This has made me look harder for the 'hidden hand of God' in events, to watch how 'negative' events can have potentially redemptive effects, sneaking out in unforeseeable ways. Muslims say "Im's'allah", and Christians say "Thy Will be done". I would not suggest that 'God' steers terrorists to crash into iconic buildings, but we nevertheless see intimations of another order of things, peeking through the smoke. An order larger than any 'new world order' or terrorist network, or any of us, or even so-called 'evil' - an order with far greater and longer-term designs. It reminds me how patient the circle-makers are with us. Their 'bombshells' are very positive.

I've been dialoguing with a psychic ex-pilot, who psychically 'got inside' one of the crashing airplanes and witnessed the souls 'going over'. She described the horror of the terrorists' souls when they discovered that Allah did not come, welcoming them to heavenly bliss. They were faced with themselves, suddenly imprisoned in their own creation, lost, helpless, diminished. There's a mirror being held up to us all, each in our own way, and a choice is being offered. I'm certainly feeling it in my own life. It says: "Palden, what have you been doing? What has it genuinely led to? What do you truly believe? And, what next?". I'm standing here, shitting my pants, shedding tears, lacking clear answers. 'Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans'.

There's more to come. The new time is just starting.... As Stanley Messenger said this summer [2001], "We're now on the bridge".

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