September 12, 2023 4:34pm by Alwyn Poole

As C.S. Lewis said; “There are no ordinary people.”

In my adult life I have seldom watched TV. My kids grew up, by and large, without it – sometimes with comic effect when one of them saw a shark show once and hid behind the couch. We had some 12″ fossil TV (bought in 1986) that we never turned on. Except that I woke up on September 12, 2001 and for no good reason I fired it up. I could not believe that some idiots had programmed on some terrifying movie about planes flying into skyscrapers. It probably took me 5 minutes to click.

In the subsequent years I have been to the WTC Memorial three times and the Pentagon Memorial on one occasion (after a very moving walk around Arlington Cemetery). All of these places are overwhelming and the best I could do on each occasion was to note one name and later look them up to grasp something of the humanity.

When we think of events like these we tend to load in the names, faces and impressions of the major players. Many NZers have a pathological distaste for the USA and at a US government level there are some reasons for that. However, having travelled there many times for family reasons I can say that I have never had a bad experience and have met so many brilliant, positive, welcoming and generous people. We have so much to learn from their higher education system just for starters. At the “ordinary person” level – as well as the spectacular scenery, wild-life, etc, it is a beautiful country.

The two pieces of media that follow remind me most of the importance of Joe Lunchbox. C.S. Lewis was right – there are no ordinary people. So, when we walk down the street or bump into people on struggle street remember there never was, is or will be a human “River of Filth”.

This one is contender for the greatest speech of all time: