911 and A-bombed Piano

on 9.11, i went to a floating lantern ceremony held by Japanese buddhist monks in NYC by hudson river.

and there was this old piano which survived atomic bomb in hiroshima in 1945.

every year, i was feeling uneasy around september 11th.
and i didn't like to watch any ceremony to commemorate the event, let alone, attending it.
mass medias provoke "patriotism", or worse, "hatred" and "retaliation", justifying wars in iraq and afganistan.

i feel truely sorry for the victims, and those who lost loved ones.
so i quietly praying for those victims, and for the peace every year as i always do on 8.6 and 8.9 which are hiroshima & nagasaki day.

and this year....
things seemed worse than ever before.
more "rift" and "disharmony" were developing, as the day approached.
stories about bigotry were everywhere.

is this really what those victimes wished for?
is this the lesson that we should learn from that tragedy?

then i saw a small article in the times a few days before 9.11.
a buddhist church was going to do a floating ceremony in hudson river, which is a japanese tradition to commemorate the spirit of the deceased.
and a piano that survived atomic bomb would be there, too.

it was a small ceremny, probably just a few hundred of people.
but it was full of kindness, peacefullness, and hamony.
no protest, no anti-anything.
just people who truely wish for peace and harmony.

this is what it should be.
this is, i thought, what 9,11 is all about.
hope this will be the day when people, no matter what race, religion, gather and pray for one peaceful world.

i felt some sort of spirit in the old, quiet piano, as if it were sending us a message...