This artwork by Donna Grethen relates to the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
When he left for work that morning
he was just another guy going to work
He’d have to fly out to a meeting in LA
So she had kissed him twice goodbye
Little did she know she’d kissed a hero
Though he’d always been one in her eyes
~ She’d Kissed a Hero
You will never forget where you were.
This morning I woke up to smoke choking the air of my little island, coming in on the wind all the way from Washington…and I mentally checked my calender…and suddenly…it all came back.
I remember so many moments of that day in flashes. How long it took to sink in, how much my brain spiraled when it did. How terribly deeply angry I was for a while, because things like this weren’t supposed to happen anymore. The crackling of a battery operated radio in the university lobby, the shell-shocked expression of my classmates. The thought of “oh my god, this is it…I’m going to live through a world war”…bouncing around in my head. I have a soft fluttering not-sure-if-it’s-real memory of wishing I could talk to my Gran. I’m pretty sure I prayed…and I’m not a praying person.
That feeling never really goes away over the years. And it doesn’t feel like 19 years. Just like it didn’t feel like 18, and it will not feel like 20. It will always feel…in some way…like yesterday.
This morning, Amras and I went through a totally normal morning that was – at the same time – not normal. I looked at him over the breakfast table
19 years ago…I was just heading to university and I was crying. Where were you?
I was calling my boss, someone had to tell him what was happening.
I sat there for a moment, and I thought – as I so often do on this day – that all those people, they just woke up and went about their daily routine. They went to work, they bought lunch, they hugged their loved ones. There was absolutely no indication that anything was ever going to be different about this day to any other. There was no way of knowing that anything was going to change, none of them could tell that – in only a few short moments – our entire world was going to be rocked to the foundations.
And I thought, sitting there, just how very lucky I am. How lucky so many of us are.
The world is going through another 9/11 moment, granted an extended one, and we are once again faced with a choice. We can become bitter and jaded and seek revenge and targets for our pain and confusion; or we can unite, as we once did ever so briefly, for the sake of kindness and humanity. We can take our inspiration from the helpers, from the healers and the welcomers. We can bring light to this dark and bitter time in history.
We can make the right choice. As we did for a few months back in 2001, when the world – in the midst of its grief – found hope in one another.
We can remember those moments and learn from them.
And, we can take that moment at the breakfast table, to smile at the people we love, and hug them at a little extra and a little harder. Because you never ever know…when you’re kissing a hero.