Take a Good Look

At the end of that awful day 9-11, I sat on my deck, drained and shaken. Then I noticed the orange of the sunset and the swaying greenery of the trees and the birdsong, all indifferent to human folly. The Earth had not been knocked off its axis after all. It sailed serenely on, offering its unconscious solace. I felt better. "Beautiful Shiloh could witness anything," Thomas Harris wrote. "Its unforgivable beauty only underscored the indifference of nature, the Green Machine." It's a funny thing. Where Harris sees horror, I see redemption.