9/11 Remembered

The Freedom Tower in Battery Park, NY the night before 9/11/2011

Although I've been trying to treat today like a typical day, it's been hard. My thoughts continue to turn back to the scar left on my psyche by 9/11. I did lose people that I had known, but not well. I do have friends who lost someone close. I know that I am lucky in this regard.

 

And yet, as most of us grind away at the tasks of the present, it can do the soul good to reflect for a moment on the past. So with that:

 

I can't think about 9/11 without re-living that "pit in the stomach" moment that we all seemed to share for days, or weeks. The hours we all spent glued to the TV trying to comprehend the horror that anyone would contemplate this, the anger that they succeeded, and emptiness left at all the needless suffering.

 

However, I also can't think about 9/11 without thinking about what happened afterward. The heroes that emerged, the compassion by the many, the generosity of the millions, and the commitment of the common people. Those are good memories, powerful memories. And while they don't erase the awful ones, I feel we can use the good memories for a

reminder about what it means to be in a community, be it small, like your local PTA, or large, like the USA. That we can remember that we have more in common than we have differences. The fact that we wish harmony for all, and to be a beacon for those in the dark. The fact that if we put aside our petty differences, what can be achieved by the collective can be stunning, worthy of song, and memorable. We can be who we aspire to be, not as individuals, but as a community, and that doing so is much more satisfying than what we can accomplish on our own. Given where this country is politically and economically at the moment, hopefully I am not the only one remembering these things.

 

My heartfelt condolences go out to those for whom this is a day of sadness.

 

Do Good Things Today!

Matt Heisler