Life Today
The anniversary of 9/11 brings with it an almost ceremonial reaction for me. Typically, in the week leading up to it, I’m inundated with reflective moments recalling the day, where I was, the impact it had on everyone in America. When the day of the anniversary arrived, I would see at least one news special about the events of that terrible awful day that brought me back to those emotions and feelings I experienced 16 years ago. The last few years, a Facebook news feed scroll has replaced the news broadcast and hit even harder as I’ve seen the posts of those who lost loved ones that day.
9/11 is the day to “never forget” as tattoos, bumper stickers, and cover photos often remind us. It’s an event in history that fundamentally changed the way we live in America and around the world. There is pre-9/11 and post-9/11. Life before and life after. There’s also a noble obligation felt to remember those who lost their lives in a senseless act of terror. To remember the grief that still surrounds survivors and the families of those killed.
This year, however, the unstoppable passage of time is forcing us to focus on what life is throwing us now. The Facebook news feed is littered with 9/11 remembrance posts, but they’re sandwiched between notifications of friends and family marked as safe after Hurricane Irma, photos of devastation in Mexico after a record-breaking earthquake that didn’t give the luxury of time for preparation, the return of Houston families to water damaged homes deemed uninhabitable.
It is life’s cruel way of forcing us to focus on the now. To focus on the new grief of our friends and neighbors, even though the tragedy of 9/11 still occupies our hearts and minds. Even though our loved ones who died that day and the days after are still gone from our embrace. Even though the void in our hearts makes us feel as though we can’t harbor emotions of love and sympathy.
This isn’t a call to leave behind a pivotal event in American history, but merely a reflection of the incredible way in which life brings us forward through time, and has done so, for thousands of years. Our friends, family, and neighbors remind us there is life to live after suffering a pain so great it alters who we are. They remind us to be present for them as they are for us. Most importantly, they remind us of what cannot be taken by tragedy: the memories of good times, of quality times, enjoying what life offered.
