9/11

When I was asked to write something for the Sept 11 anniversary I knew I had to do something meaningful, but I also wanted to do something different than your average 9/11 tribute to the first responders, affected families, and the military Troops who have taken that fight to the source in our defense. Not that these things are not important or tribute worthy, I just wanted to focus on a different aspect of this tragic day in American history.

First off I'm sure most could tell you exactly where they were when they found out and saw that footage that we are all so familiar with now. I remember waking up to an email about it and turning on the TV just in time to see the second plane fly in to the tower. Holy shit! I'd never seen anything like that happen so close to home. I’m pretty sure most Americans had not either.

That day I remember feeling so overwhelmed that after that class I retreated home to my room for that full afternoon and slept. That evening I remember going over to a few friends’ houses. I knew I didn’t want to be alone of course. There is nothing like tragedy to make you evaluate who and what is important to you and make you want to seek that out immediately.

I’ve seen other people posting about where they were 10 years ago when this went down and its obvious most of us will never forget that day. What we seem to have trouble remembering is the lesson. As people we fight too much over petty stuff or even on important issues we still lose sight of our common ground. We focus too much on our differences and each other’s faults and shortcomings that we forget what we have in common and what we love about people.

As a people we have to learn to recognize that we don’t all think alike. We don’t all see things the same way. Perspectives are what make the world turn. If we all looked at things the same exact way there would be no progress, because no one would ever question what we collectively knew as fact. The world would be flat. End of story. We have to learn to respect our differences and say hey I know you see it this way and I see it that way. I’m not asking you to change your view altogether. I’m asking you to consider my view as well. This could be applied to so many situations scaling from personal conflicts to just dealing with the world in general.

I’m not suggesting that we all be perfect and never stumble. As humans we know mistakes are imminent. It’s how you recover from them that make the difference. I hope we can all go about our day not only remembering the value of the lives we lost 10 years ago but also the value of the lives we still have around us today.