Never Forget(TM)

Today is difficult for me for many reasons.

I don’t want to wallow in grief or glorify tragedy, and yet I feel obligated to expose myself to the horrors of 9/11 so I don’t forget that it was real.

I don’t know anybody who was hurt or killed that day and I live on the other side of the continent, but I still feel personally attacked and hurt by the trauma of that day — and I wonder if we all do, at least a bit, no matter how little our lives were really affected.

At the same time, I don’t want to “what about ME” and take away from the people whose lives were physically, drastically changed on that day. But my life was changed too, if not as obviously as other lives.

Sometimes I think about the trajectory we were on, especially those of us who were so young, and I feel so angry and sad and robbed of a future in a world that maybe was a little less divided than the one we live in today.

It’s been 18 years and I feel like I’m only just beginning to grasp the magnitude of the ripples caused by this day, both directly and indirectly. It changed everything.

And every year we say, “never forget.” And we don’t forget the events — but I think we forgot the lesson. We forgot that we are stronger united. We forgot to love our neighbor first.

Today is heavy to hold.