Tom K wrote:

> Two lines kept kicking around my head: "Dust in the air suspended /
> Marks the place where a story ended" and "to make an end is to make a
> beginning."


I would like to take this opportunity to pass on the only piece of
writing about the disaster that I've come across that I have
considered appropriate to pass on to the group as a whole.  Here is an
excerpt from Ellen Goodman's 9/14/2001 column entitled "Our Children's
Fears" (URL given below):

    As New York City dug through the debris and parents made some
    attempts at normalcy, I asked a handful of psychologists the same
    question. What stories would they choose to tell and retell
    children from the growing Rolodex of dramatic narratives? About
    the New Yorkers who survived the long hike down the stairs? About
    airline passengers who apparently wrestled the terrorists? About
    good and bad people?

    Without a second thought, David Walsh chose the firefighters.
    Tell children, he said, about "people who had a choice, who
    harnessed their own horses of fear to go into that inferno to
    help people."

    James Garbarino of Cornell University, who has worked with
    children in war zones around the world, said "choose stories of
    caring-in-action." A rescued rescue worker whose first questions
    were about others. A man who carried a woman on crutches down
    dozens of floors.

    Go to the helpers, they all agreed, for our heroes.

This isn't elegant writing but it does give some good advice.

Regards,
   Rick Parker



Currently the Goodman column is at
    http://www.postwritersgroup.com/archives/good0914.htm

Later it may be at
    http://www.postwritersgroup.com/archives/arch-eg.htm


I was e-mailed these links debunking some "Nostradamus prophecies"
being circulated.  I have previously searched for a web site with a
copy of the original Nostradamus writings but it was too difficult to
find one that I could trust.

    See the section entitled "Not Nostradamus" at:
       
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/260/business/Sector_Report+.shtml

    See also:
        http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa091101b.htm