September 11, 2008.
Let's remember, today, the horrific events of September 11, 2001.
People simply going about their daily business, saying goodbye to
families, going to work, flying from one city to another to visit friends,
relatives, return to school, on business...a simple day,
like any other, and the weather was a superb
September-still-summer morning....the victims
of the terrorist acts committed that day were simply
living their lives, and none of them
could foresee the tragedy about to erupt.
Cell phones had already altered the landscape of communication,
though, and the victims were able, in many cases, to call loved
ones. People on the second plane may therefore
have known about the first plane crashing into the World Trade
Center.
There's a shot, in the film Moonstruck, of Cher walking down
a street, kicking at a can, and in the background those two
towers are reaching into the sky. Whenever I watch a rerun
of that film, it makes me sad.
Life does go on, and one doesn't "remember", on a daily basis,
"anything", whether global or personal, with that kind of immediate
aftermath intensity. Maybe that's why humans need
specific dates, for that kind of large picture "remembering"
(Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, etc.).
Wherever you are today, and whatever you are doing,
take a few moments to remember the
brave acts of human courage and kindness that occurred
that day.
Although there may have been warnings, with earlier events,
the 9/11 events cut the 21st Century off from any vestiges
of the 20th, and we were pushed into a renewed sense of
life's fragility. Decisions since have been different than those
taken before, even at an individual level.
In understanding the fragility of life, and its impermanence,
it makes one more aware of the importance of living each
day to its fullest, & the importance of letting those near
and dear to us know that we value and love them.
Maybe today one could buy a rose, and keep it on a desk
at work, or on a table at home, and with this emblem
remember the bravery and the sadness and the fear and
the kindnesses of that day. A remembering as
"homage" to those most deeply involved....
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