I haven't thought a lot today about 9/11. I mean, I thought about it, but not a lot. I thought about the upcoming election and I thought about hurricane Ike and I thought about my stupid battery back up for the computer and I thought about starting back to work at the preschool next week and I thought about grocery shopping tomorrow.
But when I sat down for a few minutes before bed, to read blogs, I see that you all have been thinking about it.
And I remember how I was awoken (I was living in California) by a phone call, and how my husband and I stumbled out to the living room and turned on the TV. And we saw the second plane hit. How I went to my job as a church secretary and listened to the radio reports all day long, and how I tried to reach my friends in NYC. How I felt inexplicably sick in the middle of the day and had to lay down. How I went to rehearsal that night and the cast fought about whether we should be there or not, and in the end it was decided that our play... designed for middle school students to raise the issue of tolerance... well, that the show truly must go on. That we needed to use our gifts to speak of what we knew. That we needed to open the dialogue for young students. How it wasn't until several days later, when the show had debuted, that I kind of freaked out and bought a bunch of emergency supplies to keep in my car.
I remember how I thought that now we know, in some small yet terrifyingly huge part, how so much of the world feels on a regular basis.
And I'm glad that we stop to remember. Yet I can't help but think of all the horrors that happen all over the world every day; the bombs and the attacks and the natural disasters and the genocide and the gang killings and ....
Well, I can't help but think. Isn't there something we could remember for each day? Some event that reminds us that we need to fight injustice and love our neighbor and help in a time of need?
I hope that any thinking you've been doing is not focused on anger and fear. I hope that you're thinking about how to make the world a better place.
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12 comments:
Oh Maypole. Yes.
Beautifully written. I have thought the same thing for seven years. What happened was terrible, one of the most tragic things that have ever happened anywhere (other than natural disaster and Hitler, etc.), but as Americans, most of us do not face day-to-day threat of our lives. We are lucky and blessed. September 11 is a reminder to me that some people live like that every day. Maybe not on as large a scale, but their lives are not secure as ours. And MY life, is so much easier than yours. I don't have hurricanes blowing into mine... EVER. So rarely a tornado or even a thunderstorm.
I really appreciated this thoughtful post.
Completely. I think of that every. single. day.
Lovely post, PM.
You are right.
"I hope that any thinking you've been doing is not focused on anger and fear."
You said it, sister.
I often think about how naive and arrogant I was to assume the first plane was an accident. In any other country in the world they probably would have thought "terrorist attack" right away, but I never thought it would happen here.
In my mind I just kept thinking about how people live with constant bombings and attacks going on. There is a whole world out there that we just can not relate to but that 9/11 gave us a glimpse into.
Great post.
Well said:)
Every day. In some little way or another.
Every day, I try - but that fear, for me at least, will probably always be there when I kiss my husband goodbye on his way to work . . . at the airport . . . as a fireman.
I'm sure you understand.
Amen. It starts with us.
Yes. There is often too much remembering and never enough changing the future.
(pardon my tardiness ~ I'm behind again)
Just wanted to say ~ great post. I think 9/11 affected us all so much because of the drama of the day along with the continued reminders (some for political gain in my opinion) every since. But yes, every day there are bad things happening that we quickly forget about. We should be changing our focus!
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