Like a reluctant host, I open the door for the New Year<\/p>\n
Uneasy and unwilling to suffer more of the same<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This year, again, there is so much to close our eyes to:<\/p>\n
there is too much ugliness in our post 9\/11 world<\/em><\/p>\n There are too many questions that need <\/em>to go unanswered, to be ignored<\/p>\n It seems too much insipid reality that hurls cruelty, hatred, sickness and despair<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The eyes of truth have been gouged from its sockets<\/p>\n –and hopelessly lost with the crumbling of two towers<\/p>\n Erect in our memories,<\/p>\n yet no longer enduring monuments of humanity<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tonight, with the door pushed opened,<\/p>\n I am left to pray for a new order:<\/p>\n May love blanket our loved ones, our friends and community<\/em><\/p>\n and cover us with hope, faith and love, <\/em><\/p>\n and the strength to do right, to recognize good and act for <\/em><\/p>\n a better, just, and, at the core, compassionate world<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And I must begin living with these ghosts and refrain from<\/p>\n pulling myself tight into the fetal position<\/p>\n for comfort and some relief<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I must stand and repress heaving sighs of despair<\/p>\n Look to those things I hold dear and ensure<\/p>\n They are cared for and do not go neglected<\/p>\n In the long shadows cast by those remarkable towers<\/p>\n <\/p>\n – Chris George\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n January 2002\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like a reluctant host, I open the door for the New Year Uneasy and unwilling to suffer more of the same This year, again, there is so much to close our eyes to: there is too much ugliness in our post 9\/11 world There are too many questions that need to go unanswered, to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[80],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10916,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10914\/revisions\/10916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What horror<\/h1>\n