Air Crash Memorial Service
Tuesday 17th June 2003
I greet you all today, not just as Mayor of Christchurch, but
representing the other Mayors and people of Canterbury, and all
the Mayors from areas around New Zealand served by Crop & Food
Research.
I must note in particular the Mayor of Selwyn and the people
of Selwyn who have been hugely affected by the tragedy suffered
by
such an important institution within their district.
This is a small
city, in a small country, and tragedies like this accident have
a big impact on our society.
Tragedy and grief is always a profound
reminder of the woeful limits of language to meet some situations.
It has always been
so.
In this setting it is perhaps apt to share with you how
the English author and theologian, CS Lewis, reacted after he
lost his late-blooming
love, his wife, to cancer.
As one of the leading spiritual thinkers
of the age, people held great hopes for how he would deal with
his loss.
An Archbishop said to him after the service that the
depth and strength of his faith must have been a great consolation.
It
is reported that Lewis had the courage to reply..."No...it's
a terrible mess.''
It was a response that had an amazing ring of
honesty, courage and realism, in trying to voice the language
of grief.
Our own recent tragedy has again provided a reminder of
how Canterbury is a close community that shares many major experiences,
good and
bad.
In recent days we have all felt firstly for the families
of those who lost their lives, and for those who survived, with
lives
that will have been altered forever.
The loss inside those immediate
families and the whanau who fan out from that hub of loss will
have been profound.
Then there are their extended families - the
loss to the people of the academic and broader community of Lincoln,
the shattered
colleagues throughout Canterbury, New Zealand, and indeed the
world, the friends of this extended family, the client groups,
and the
many, many people who knew those who have so swiftly gone from
us.
The aviation industry, part of the life-blood of this province,
also stands silent in its grief.
It would be utterly presumptuous
to suggest to those close to those we have just lost that we
can feel anything remotely like
what you are feeling.
It has been one of the more shocking aspects
of this accident, that we have so swiftly lost so many who offered
so much.
What we can do here today is publicly thank these people,
now gone, for what they have done, professionally and as partners,
parents, siblings and friends.
We have also to thank their families
for their loved one's contributions to our lives and the life
of our community.
All loss is hard to deal with.
Losses such as this, of some of
our best and brightest, also forces us to reflect on what they
saw and loved while they were amongst
us.
In the nature of their work they combined the best of our old
rural excellence and skill with the skills and ability to move
aspects of this tradition into the forefront of the modern world.
In a professional sense they were pioneers of another phase of
our economic and social growth.
They were people who saw the beauty
of what we have here. They chose to enjoy and delight in the
superb natural prosperity
that is still intact here, and to add to the quality of life
in our
amazing country.
They were very much part of the reason that
we have got and retain such a wonderful country.
At a time such
as this the best we can do is to show our sympathy and support
for those left behind.
We can also make it a time to reflect on
the good things about our lives and how we all need to keep in
mind the frailty and swiftness
of life.
Perhaps today we could ourselves take the time to tell
our loved ones that we do love them. To hold our children and
cherish our old.
Perhaps above all else resolve to keep some focus
on the day we are in.
I would like to conclude with a Sanskrit
proverb:
Look to this day,
For it is life,
The very life of life.
In its brief course lie all
The realities and verities of existence,
The bliss of growth,
The splendour of action,
The glory of power -
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today, well lived,
Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a
vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
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