Twenty-five years ago, this week, we were reminded of things we already knew, the hard way.
Most of us who were old enough to remember September 11, 2001, likely remember where we were when we first heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and the fear and uncertainty that followed. What began as an ordinary Tuesday morning became one of those rare days when the world seemed to stop, and everything we thought was important was suddenly rearranged.
In the days that followed, something else happened. We called people we hadn’t spoken to in a while; we checked on neighbors, and strangers talked to one another. We hugged people a little longer and told them we loved them a little more easily. Arguments that had seemed important a few days earlier suddenly weren’t. Deadlines were still deadlines, bills still had to be paid, and problems didn’t disappear, but for a little while, we seemed to have a much clearer understanding of where they belonged on the list.
We didn’t need anyone to teach us those things. We already knew family mattered more than work and relationships mattered more than disagreements. We knew tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed. We knew that most of the things that frustrate us on a given day aren’t nearly as important as they feel in the moment.
September 11 didn’t teach us those lessons. It made it impossible, at least temporarily, to ignore them.
And then, slowly, life returned to normal.
We went back to being annoyed by traffic. We became too busy to make the phone call. We let disagreements become grudges and allowed things that were urgent to crowd out things that were important. Eventually, many of the things that seemed so insignificant in the days after September 11 found their way back to the top of our lists.
Maybe that’s simply human nature. We can’t live every day with the emotional intensity that follows a tragedy, nor should we. Life has to move forward. But moving forward doesn’t have to mean leaving every lesson behind.
Twenty-five years later, remembrance should certainly be about honoring the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives that day, the first responders who ran toward danger while others were running away, and the countless families whose lives changed forever. But perhaps remembrance can ask something of the rest of us as well.
Maybe remembrance isn’t only about what happened. Maybe it’s also about remembering who we were in the days that followed.
It shouldn’t take tragedy to give us perspective.
So, twenty-five years later, perhaps the best way to remember isn’t only to look back at September 11, 2001. Maybe it’s to carry a little of September 12 forward with us, to make the call, let go of the grudge, check on the neighbor, hug someone a little longer, or say the thing we’ve been meaning to say.
We already learned the lesson.
The question is whether we still remember it.
“May we remember, long after the crisis has passed, to be the people we became when we needed one another.” – Unknown
Have a good week. NEVER FORGET!!!
-Vijay