Collective mourning is difficult in a secular culture.

How we commemorate Sept. 11, a date imprinted in the national psyche with Dec. 7 as dates to live in infamy, is idiosyncratic and individual. Many find solace in faith, in reading the Bible, others in prayer or poetry. Still others join friends to remember those we knew who are no longer alive because vicious men from another civilization made killing innocents in the name of their god a rite of benighted faith.

My friend was a literary man who sought his solace in poetry, literature and art. At his memorial service the other day another friend quoted one of his favorite poems, by W.H. Auden:

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just
Walking dully along.

That strikes the right note of remembrance two years after Sept. 11. Auden recalls the mundane details of the life that the terrorist's prey will never again enjoy. The excruciating pain and grief that drew us together immediately after Sept. 11 have been muted. Time inevitably dilutes the primary colors of experience, wearing down the intensity of fury.

We forget how fortunate we are to bite into an apple, sip a robust cup of coffee, open curtains to the sunlight, stroll a city street or walk along a country road. We go on without a wink to our good fortune.

"Why me?" That's the question often asked by those struck down by mortal sickness or an errant automobile, or by a shot or shell in battle. It's a question impossible to answer, even by the learned men who write books about why bad things happen to good people.

But sometimes we can act with purpose to shorten the odds, such as they are. We can sometimes change the odds collectively if not individually. We can think of the gift we give to unfortunates in Afghanistan and Iraq who by our efforts against a shared enemy will breathe the fresh air of freedom.

The president was right the other night to say that "for America, there will be no going back to the era before Sept. 11 2001, to false comfort in a dangerous world." Continued...