It's that time of year again... a mixed bag for our house, since we celebrate birthdays (my daughter's, my dad's, my cousin's) and yet remember that fateful morning on 9/11/2001. The day we all promise to never forget. The day that took the lives of so many. So every year, I wake up to the reality that, while I post happy birthday messages for my daughter, so many others remember the lives of those they lost.
And we say it again in posts, with pictures, in our words - Never Forget.
But I think we have.
No, we haven't forgotten the horror. We haven't forgotten the tragedy. We haven't forgotten what we were doing, where we were, how we found out. We haven't forgotten the victims nor the heroes. We haven't forgotten that we made a promise to not forget.
We have, however, forgotten what else came out of this tragic day. We have forgotten how we came together in support of one another. We have forgotten how we all seemed to be kinder, more patient, more understanding - even on the California freeways, which is to say something. We have forgotten that on that day and after, what brought us all through was love and celebrating what is good in life.
We have forgotten that during that time, at some point, this touched us so deeply, we all wanted to be better people and create a better world.
As St. Mother Teresa said at one point, we have forgotten that we belong to one another.
We have forgotten that the only way to dispel the darkness is to be the light, and that the only way to combat hate is to love.
We talk about it, though, only to turn around with another post filled with expletives and hateful words and statements - either directed to a type of people, or to our neighbor for disagreeing with our views, or to the people on the other side of the political party isle. We fill our walls with sentiments about justice and kindness and love of neighbor, and then we follow that with statements that project anger and hatred and insult.
So, we have forgotten some of what that day initially instilled in us. And in doing so, I think we have forgotten how to best honor those lives lost - not through division and hate, which is what took down those towers and took away those people. We best honor those lives in the same way the heroes who ran into those buildings honored them - compassion, caring, kindness, determination in the face of fear, hope in the face of despair, light in the face of darkness.
To repeat another often-shared sentiment, in a world where you can be anything, be kind.
Be the light.
