Today marks the
12th anniversary of 9/11. Twelve years later, and no one in the
United States, or Canada, has forgotten the events of that day, or the people
who lost their lives. We recall the day and our impressions of it, where we
were, how we found out...it is one of those days in history that forever will be
etched in our hearts and minds. We will forever remember.
This event was
even more transforming, for it changed the world in which we live. I can barely
recall what the world was like pre-9/11. I wonder if the people of an earlier
generation had a similar feeling. Did they, in the years after the Second World
War, pause and try to recall what their life had been like before Pearl
Harbor?
Blessedly few
are the events which shake us to our very core. Yet in recent memory we have had
several. Some were manmade like 9/11 and the Newtown school shooting last year.
And some were attacks of nature, like the Boxing Day Tsunami that hit Indonesia
in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami of
2011.
If you look
back over the last twelve years, it’s easy to see how some people can let fear
overtake their lives. Between our own insanity and the vagaries of nature, who
can be sure there will even be a tomorrow?
It’s hard to
consider, sometimes, that there have been horrific moments in life, all through
the ages. There must have been people in every generation who thought that
things certainly couldn’t get much worse. I’m sure there have been many who were
afraid “the end” was near. Imagine what Londoners thought during the Black
Plague. Looking back just as far as the last century in the 1950s, think of the
people who built bomb shelters on their property, because they were certain that
a bomb was going to drop on them.
Do you remember
the “duck and cover” drills in school? Pure fear in action. There was no way
hiding under a desk with your hands over your head would save your ass in the
event of a nuclear attack. The only result of those drills was to either instill
or allay fear—depending on the mindset of the person performing the
drill.
The truth is
that life has never been certain, nor will it ever be. Things happen—things we
never expect and for sure never want. We really only do have this moment that we
are in. We can’t prepare for every eventuality. We can only do the best we can
do to cope with the things that come our way.
That is a
sentiment that you’ve heard all of your life and in many different forms –
“carpe diem” – seize the day. Because this day truly is all
you can count on having.
It’s a
testament to the incredible resiliency of humanity, and mankind’s unique
capacity to have faith despite all evidence, that allows for us to plan for the
future, to set our course and aim for our goals.
We somehow
manage to eventually find a level of normal after each new flood of chaos
and tragedy, and continue on our way through our lives, choosing
to believe without any basis in fact, that all will be well and we will live to
be a ripe old age.
We know these
things and ponder these things, even as today, we pause to have a moment of
silence and remember those who are lost.
Love,
Morgan
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