Where Were the Gods on 9.11?

"Where were the Gods on 9.11?" People are asking. 9.11 was unquestionably a horrible, shocking moment. But then, so are the earthquakes, monsoons, volcanoes, diseases, and famines that take many more each day. When an old woman dies of cancer, that is a traumatic moment for her loving family. Is the loss for her family somehow diminished because she went down to Hades alone, and not with 3,000 others? Yet, old women die every day - should we question the existence of the Gods every time an elderly person passes? To me, blaming the Gods for this reveals that one has wrong ideas about life and humanity: that we should never die, that horrible things should never happen to us, that the Gods should keep us happy and safe like pampered little poodles. Not only is this unrealistic, it's undesirable. Suffering gives meaning to our lives. If you never had to work for anything, never had the chance to lose something - what value would it have? Sometimes we only see how valuable something is when it's gone. And if no one ever died, our world would overflow with people, and we would have no resources, no food, no clothes, just a writhing mass of suffering humanity. Hades, while at times cruel, and always implaccable, in the end gives man his greatest blessing: the peace of death. The relationship we have with the Gods is one of reciprocal gifts. 'I do this, and you will do something for me in return.' It's not that the Gods actually need anything - for being Gods, they are blessed, without want - but rather that gifts are a tangible symbol of our relationship with them. We care enough about them to give, to sacrifice. In return, they step forward and aid us. There is no obligation to aid strangers or enemies, unless they come as suppliants. And these people were strangers, as unpleasant as it is to say so. They did not honor the Blessed Immortals - they turned their back on them in favor of Yahweh and his Son. If the Gods helped us, without our first asking, it would strip us of our freedom and autonimity. We would then be robots, or infants. The Gods do not wish us to be infants, but to become men and women of arete (virtue, excellence). The road to arete is not an easy one - but easy lessons are soon forgotten and sometimes the kind teacher turns out to be cruel one.