dsedy
Well-Known Angler
9/11/22
Tell Them you Love Them
On this day in 2001, Brian Sweeney was a passenger trapped on hijacked United Airlines Flight 175, which was heading straight for the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He called his wife from one of the plane’s seatback phones to say that things were not looking good.
“I just want you to know I absolutely love you,” Sweeney told his wife’s voicemail. “I want you to do good, go have good times. Same to my parents and everybody, and I just totally love you, and I’ll see you when you get here.”
In book 1 of Meditations, where Marcus Aurelius catalogs the most important things he learned throughout his life, he said he learned this from a teacher named Sextus, “to be free of passion and yet full of love.”
Imagine the terror of that moment on this day 21 years ago. Yet when you hear Brian Sweeney’s voice (you can hear the recording here) coming through the phone, there’s not a trace of fear. It’s free of passion–free of anger, free of despair, free of everything, yet full of love. Love boxes out fear. “Pure love,” Seneca said, “careless of all other things, kindles the soul.” It makes us selfless. It emboldens us, makes us courageous, inspires us to be strong, instills us with purpose.
So today, on the 21st anniversary of 9/11, let us, as Marcus said and as Sweeney was, be full of love. Let us tell those we love that we totally love them. Let us bring love to every situation we face. Indeed, there is almost no situation in which passion helps, but almost every situation is made better when it is full of love.
dailystoic.com
Tell Them you Love Them
On this day in 2001, Brian Sweeney was a passenger trapped on hijacked United Airlines Flight 175, which was heading straight for the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He called his wife from one of the plane’s seatback phones to say that things were not looking good.
“I just want you to know I absolutely love you,” Sweeney told his wife’s voicemail. “I want you to do good, go have good times. Same to my parents and everybody, and I just totally love you, and I’ll see you when you get here.”
In book 1 of Meditations, where Marcus Aurelius catalogs the most important things he learned throughout his life, he said he learned this from a teacher named Sextus, “to be free of passion and yet full of love.”
Imagine the terror of that moment on this day 21 years ago. Yet when you hear Brian Sweeney’s voice (you can hear the recording here) coming through the phone, there’s not a trace of fear. It’s free of passion–free of anger, free of despair, free of everything, yet full of love. Love boxes out fear. “Pure love,” Seneca said, “careless of all other things, kindles the soul.” It makes us selfless. It emboldens us, makes us courageous, inspires us to be strong, instills us with purpose.
So today, on the 21st anniversary of 9/11, let us, as Marcus said and as Sweeney was, be full of love. Let us tell those we love that we totally love them. Let us bring love to every situation we face. Indeed, there is almost no situation in which passion helps, but almost every situation is made better when it is full of love.
Be Free Of Passion But Full of Love
On this day in 2001, Brian Sweeney was a passenger trapped on hijacked United Airlines Flight 175, which was heading straight for the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He called his wife from one of the plane’s seatback phones to say that things were not looking good. “I just want you to...
dailystoic.com
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