Remembrance and Renewal

I was awake at 8:46 this morning, exactly the time a plane crashed into the North Trade Center ten years ago, changing our lives forever.

 
 
Heavy with the tragedy that today represents, I padded downstairs to watch the tribute of survivors and heroes on almost every channel. I sat alone in my quiet house, reflecting on the emotions and bravery felt that day.

I was getting ready for school- another day in the sixth grade. But it wasn't just any day, it was a day that will be remembered in the hearts of Americans and around the world- a day we will never forget.

I didn't understand. Not fully. My mom was glued to the TV, tears streaming down her shocked face and yet still I didn't understand. Things like this happen all the time, I thought. The papers are littered with painful stories of lives lost, evil done. But none so terrible, I came to learn, as the attack on America one decade ago.

I went to school, walking the same halls I walked every day, yet clearly different and eerily quiet. TVs were on all day, I remember. My teachers were aware that nothing they taught us that day would alter our lives more than the events before us.

I remember talking about it at dinner that night. Or rather my dad shared a few words and the rest of us listened. It was too early for answers, for explanation, but dad did his best. He knew how this day would affect us, how it would follow our lives forever.

I should have saved newspaper clippings. I remember thinking about it as I attempted to grasp the weight of the situation, but they were so heartbreaking, so uncertain, so hopeless. Why would I keep a memory of America so shattered, so broken?  But now I know. Those headlines are a peace of history. It was a monumental moment where perfect strangers united in harmony- one nation under God.

Tonight NY is a beacon of hope, shining where the towers once stood emitting prosperity to the rest of the world. The empty space contrasts the rest of the city like a scar on an otherwise painted canvas. And it is- once a wound painful and bleeding is now a blatant reminder of the day that made history.

All day the stories of heartbreak and hope, heroes and humility have been broadcast on the news. On a 20/20 special tonight, Katie Couric spoke of The Falling Man, a famous photo of the last moments of one man's life. Somehow I'd never seen it before, and immediately my heart was seized with hurt. I learned the New York Times wrestled with the ethics of publishing such a picture. It captures the last moments before death- a highly personal and painful moment, and is that really fair to his family to print? However, the man was never identified and remains today 'The Falling Man' that affects the world so much.

Ten years have passed and 9/11 is still fresh in our hearts. We will always remember the lives lost, and the heroes made. We will never forget that monumental day.

May God Bless America...