He found some socks
She chose his tie
When he left for work that morning he was just another guy
Goin’ to work
He’d have to fly, out to a meeting in LA
So she kissed him twice goodbye
Little did she know she’d kissed a hero….
13 years ago, it was a normal morning. People got up, had breakfast, kissed their loved ones goodbye…and they got on planes. Thinking no more of it than someone would think of jumping on the bus to get to work. Most of them probably had a million things already on the go, a coffee in one hand, a cell phone tucked against one ear, the remains of a bagel forgotten in a handbag, already running late for a meeting. Thousands of people just going about their day.
And in that one New York Minute…everything changed.
And the world reeled as America was handed its second day of Infamy. Was reminded that nothing was safe, nothing was predictable, that no ground was truly holy or held aloft from the rest of the world. History brought to screaming life for all of us that thought we had lived long enough to see it never reoccur.
The day America’s luck ran out.
The day even I, the proudest of Canadians, stood proud next to a weeping eagle and declared myself an American.
That was over a decade ago.
And no, you never forget where you were, and you never should. This day always has a heaviness to it that has nothing to do with the dreary weather or the turning of the hours. It’s true that you should never forget. It’s true that you should never forget, but this long after the event…this long after the smoke has cleared…remembering is no longer the point.
The world picked up the pieces, and we moved on, and now, looking back through the smoke and ashes of a tragedy gone by, I can’t help but wonder if we’ve moved on too far. We had a chance to learn a lesson, we saw all too clearly – blindingly clearly – what the world could be if the world did not change; and we did not change. None of us. Not enough. For one brief blinding moment after tragedy rocked us all, the world bonded together and held each other up, in that brief moment when we were all Americans, we saw what the world could be if we simply realized that tragedy can affect anyone, that death can come for us all at any moment, and that deep down – under the trappings of religion and politics, race, creed and orientation – we are all the same. We are all vulnerable, and we are sometimes, all so terribly terribly alone.
And we do not need to be.
That is the lesson we should take forward from this, even all this time later, even after so many days and so many years have passed. Hold your children close, reach out to the neighbor you never spoke to, laugh with your coworkers…smile at the person next to you on the street. That smile could save a life, that phone call could change a heart.
If we take only weariness and sorrow from tragedy it will forever hold us hostage.
So yes, always remember…
But never forget to move on…and when you do, move on in love…so that no one, from the highest paid CEO to the poverty stricken in the alleys of New York…ever has to die in vain.
Bright blessings,
Well put Pumpkin’ hugs as always Me xxoo