DEATH SPEAKS - SO DID GOD SPEAK, "JUMP!"?
By Andy Weddington
Saturday, 12 September 2020
Hearing the word is the devout receiving of the will of God. William Ames
The chilling short story, a masterpiece and some say greatest of all time, 'Death Speaks' by William Somerset Maugham reminds there's nowhere to run nor hide; death finds us all.
We flee anyway but fate sealed.
A chilling photograph, a masterpiece short story - disturbing as it may be, snapped on that fateful Tuesday morning, 11 September 2001 is forever seared into memory; many a memory.
A cousin who shares middle and surname posted the photograph on his FaceBook page this 19th anniversary.
Facebook, contemptuous of freedom of speech and policers of all things "offensive," declared the image graphic, and to not upset or offend they warned and masked the photograph for optional viewing.
Can fate be graphic?
The photograph is a man falling from high off the North Tower of the World Trade Center - escape from being trapped above the airplane turned missile point of impact and inferno.
The shot (of some dozen recording descent) is deceiving. He did not fall straight down but tumbled.
A point of order ... The New York City coroner's office did not record any deaths that day as "jump" - a term reserved for planned suicide. [The numbers on that unnatural route - accidental, blown, or jumped - believed less than 200.]
When death speaks, burn or impact?
Jump.
Jump?
Jump!
The last act of defiance, of control.
Courage!
His image iconic.
So simple - man against manmade.
For the imagination, his fate as heartbreaking as the too iconic World War II flag raising atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima is breathtaking - captured in 1/400 of a second.
And such irony; one man photographed moments before death in contrast to six men photographed who, to that point, had momentarily cheated death.
Six men strained to raise that heavy metal pole topped with an American flag. Joe Rosenthal, photographer, luckily got it.
For decades those six men believed known by man; official records proved.
Only in the last decade have they been correctly identified; amateur sleuths, meticulous research, photographic analysis, and committee discussions logically concluded one Marine and the sole Navy Corpsman on record were not on the pole.
Heaven and Earth records now match; never too late for truth.
Richard Drew photographed 'Falling Man' - identity not yet confirmed but one day.
Vertical and upside down with a leg that appears casually pulled up - as if on a stroll in the park, that frozen fraction of a second gut-wrenching; not graphic.
Terrified?
Calm?
Peace of mind?
Leap of faith?
Did God speak, "Jump!"?
He, I believe, did.
Meanwhile ...
We carry on, fate sealed.
Post Script
https://genius.com/William-somerset-maugham-death-speaks-annotated
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