Today is the 6 year anniversary of the first posting on this blog. Thank you, thank you to all of you have made it a conversation, not just my own odd thoughts and musings.
I nearly forgot these anniversaries.
What I didn't forget—was not allowed to forget— was that ten years ago I awoke to the news of a plane hitting one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York. You all know the rest of that story. As I got ready to go to work I watched the drama unfold on TV in disbelief. As the second tower fell I was thinking of the trip we had taken as a family, ten years before, to New York and Washington D.C. and the beautiful day we spent going to the observation deck at the top of the World Trade Center. The view was clear and surreal from that height. Breathtaking. My kids wanted T shirts, so we stepped into the gift shop near the observation deck and I spotted a pretty enamel and cloisonne bracelet that appealed to me. I bought it and popped it onto my wrist and thought, "every time I wear this I will remember this beautiful day." And now I was seeing devastation and empty sky, save for dust and smoke, where we had stood 10 years before. I grabbed the bracelet out of my jewelry box as I ran out the door to head off to work and I wore it every day for the next week, constantly touching and twisting it on my wrist as I watched the horrors on TV. One day I took it off and put it away where it has remained for ten years. I never wore it again.
Even after ten years it is hard to think about that day and even harder to add up all the consequences and all the bitterness and ugliness and paranoia that began with that evil act. I am unwilling to participate in the "celebration" of this anniversary and am avoiding the TV specials and the rehashing of that terrible day. Someone told me we need reminders so we will never forget what happened. I don't need a reminder. I won't forget. Will you?
I won't forget it. I live with the consequences of that event daily. What I find interesting is that one would think that not forgetting might go hand in hand with some major change, but I don't think it has. Ten years later, we are on the same trajectory.
ReplyDeleteNo, I will never forget. And it twists me inside out when I remember. I am also avoiding all the articles and TV specials. How can people forget the concentrations camps, atomic bombs, assassinations and terrorists' attacks? I can't, but I choose to not dwell on the bad, but rather choose to celebrate good. So I congratulate you on your blog anniversary. Your blog is wonderful and I love it.
ReplyDeleteHello Terry,
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine the grief 9/11 has caused in NYC.
I remember that day vividly as my heart was breaking. I have no trouble remembering and as you have said... I do not need to watch it over again...It is etched in my mind and my heart forever.
On a happier note to-day is a 57th wedding anniversary for me and my dear husband. Hard to believe so much time has passed. We feel fortunate that we have had such a wonderful life to-gether. To-day we will celebrate that .
xoxo
((((hugs))))
Maggie
Happy blogoversary and thank you for being an inspiration over the past six years. I have been wondering if we had responded as a nation like we did after Pearl Harbor, would we feel differently? I too, will pass on the memorials, specials, etc. I don't need to relive that day nor have I forgotten. Thank you for being a sane, beacon of happiness and creativity.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your blog posts, in general, and this one in particular. I am also avoiding all the TV "specials". It seems the media wants to manipulate our feelings, and they seem to get some perverse enjoyment out of "reminding" us of how awful it all was. As you said, I need no reminders, and no hyperbole either.
ReplyDeleteWent to church and we had lessons [ assigned in the three year lectionary] which focused on Forgiveness and mercy. That seemed appropriate to me.
No, I need no reminders. And I'm wondering why we need the reminders... Certainly if the events of the day had taught us some great lesson, we could keep this date, but I can't for the life of me think what that lesson would be.
ReplyDeleteThe image I remember so vividly was the shot at the end of day of hundreds of New Yorkers, covered in dust, trudging silently over the bridge to find their ways to their homes and loved ones.
Your final paragraph exactly sums up my feelings on this day. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI will never forget, never ever. I still cry in silence when I think about it. I suppose I always will.
ReplyDeleteI'm so thankful for your lovely, peaceful,beautiful blog.Thank you for sharing your talent with all of us.
ReplyDeleteBeing a New Yorker, I need no reminders of that day. A young woman who lost her Mom on that day had the best remark regarding this media blitz. She said that it was like having to bury her Mom again and again, year after year. Enough of that kind of pain. Mother's of children who lost Dads said that they just about got their children to sleep without nightmares & then there it was again.
Quiet personal reflection and prayers are my way of remembering. I can't imagine that any of those lost would want their loved ones to suffer so repeatedly.
I see no purpose in the televised rehashing. Seeing it all again made me sick. Fearful. And I live here in Maine. What pain was inflicted on the people closest?
ReplyDeleteAs I channel surfed to find something (non memorial) I saw the ghostly lights now shining up from ground zero into the sky. So very disturbing. Who on earth thought that was a good thing????? Twin beams of light.
I will never forget!
ReplyDeleteI want to say that you are very talented woman
I don't think anyone would call it a celebration. It's a commemoration - a "lest we forget" moment for the media.
ReplyDeleteWe knew 37 people who died that day. Poof - they were gone and we can hardly believe it, even now. We know many more who were in the buildings but made it out safely. They don't need reminders. They live with it every day.
I understand the need to remember and to mark the day. I thought the best tribute was the way Paul Simon sang "The Sounds of Silence." That about summed it up for me.
Cool!!! Thanks a lot! Love it!
ReplyDeleteI love the twin beams of light. To me they symbolize that although the people and the structures are gone their spirit rises. I think they are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteTerry,
ReplyDeleteI don't think any of us, even we non Americans, will ever forget, I remember I sat for days watching the horror and it wasn't my country or my people, but my heart ached for those involved and those who were grieving, and it still aches for the people and all the changes it has brought all round the world.
I too decided to avoid the commemoration of the event. It's just still too raw for me. I'm a native NYer now living in Australia and I have memories of my Dad taking us kids down to the WTC site as the towers were being built. My Australian husband and I visited the WTC in Sept 2000. I keep thinking one year earlier and it could have been us.
ReplyDelete