There's a story that Joseph Goldstein (Buddhist meditation teacher) has told.

He was leading a retreat not long after 9/11. (If I recall correctly, it was within days after 9/11.) He was leading a group in "metta" (translated "loving kindness") meditation. It involves wishing good things ("may you be happy, well, safe, peaceful, and at ease") for yourself, then for a friend, then someone you don't have strong positive or negative feelings about, then an enemy/antagonist, then all of them together, then all sentient beings.

He said that retreat-goers objected that they couldn't possibly wish good things for people like those who hijacked the planes or for Osama Bin Laden himself. All they could have for those people in that moment was hatred. And they asked Joseph how he could possibly ask them to have any positive wishes for "the terrorists".

I mean, I don't know how many of you remember 9/11 or the years closely following. But to say the U.S. lost our collective minds is no exaggeration. And I would hope most here agree that that xenophobic fervor led only to terrible things. (Including Trump's presidential terms.)

Joseph's response was "at least I should think that you all should be able to wish for them to be free of hate".

In a way, it seems weird that it was 25 years ago. In another way, it's weird to think it was only 25 years ago.