I have spent the better part of last week wondering how to handle my post today.
It didn’t seem right to post a breezy list of links without acknowledging 9/11. It didn’t seem right to skip posting altogether, either, since I’ve promised weekly links.
On the other hand, I am avoiding the 9/11 coverage as much as I can, and really didn’t feel like doing a 9/11 post round-up or tribute or “this is what I remember” post.
It’s not that I’m not thinking about 9/11. I mean, how could any of us not be? It’s been such a part of our daily lives for the last ten years that it somehow feels, simultaneously, like it just happened yesterday and as if it happened when I was a baby and I grew up under its cloud.
Tragic, life-changing, unforgettable…yes, always. It has changed our nation forever in big and small ways over the past ten years. For me personally, it marked a shift toward true adulthood, a loss of innocence. But I don’t feel as though the specific, tragic events of that day are “mine” to mourn to the same degree as those whose losses were specific and personal. Nor do I find that the feelings are fresher today than they were yesterday – the fact that I experienced it all through a television screen rather than by losing a friend or breathing the smoke and dust myself probably has a lot to do with that. Quite the opposite: for me, the years have softened my memories of 9/11; of course I still remember the horror, but just as much I remember a rush of realization of what matters: family, friends, faith, love, hope, all that good stuff that always seems to remain after the dust settles. And while I understand the sentiment to “never forget,” I also don’t want, or need, to make an effort to relive that day. For most of us, it’s never gone away to begin with.
So for those of you who, like me, don’t have a personal 9/11 tragedy to mourn today – or who maybe just need a break from the endless news cycle full of “new, exclusive footage” – I’ve selected a handful of posts that represent a small celebration of things that are important to me: family, home, children, love; the things little and big that make up our fragile, worthwhile lives:
- I Love The 70s – Adventures in Babywearing
- Do What You Do While You’re Doing It – Velveteen Mind
- Joy in the sorrow – Mommy Coddle
- Practice – Swonderland
And if you would be so kind, I’d love you to read (and weigh in on) my latest Babble Voices post: What’s worse: dirt or clutter?
I feel the same way. I just posted, too, and felt like- should I have posted something “in remembrance” instead? But honestly it would have been forced if I did. I have read some other awesome posts, though, and I do appreciate those that choose to write about it today.
Oh my goodness, thank you for including me in you list!
Steph
There’s a part of me that wants to watch some of the coverage. The part of me that doesn’t want to must be bigger, because I have yet to turn on the TV today and have avoided most other coverage. But it’s impossible to avoid completely, and Facebook status updates by my friends made me want to write a post on my own blog.
I’m truly not trying to promote it here-but it’s part of my attempt to think about what 9/11 means to me 10 years later, and how my life has changed. As I said to Mr. Sandwich this afternoon, when I think of 9/11, one of the things I think of is luck. I was lucky to be on the periphery of the periphery of 9/11 when it happened. And since then, my life has changed in so many ways, with greater net happiness than I could have imagined. I can’t say “This happened because of 9/11.” But it did shape the way I met the world afterward, and while I don’t think all of those changes have been for the greater good, I personally am happier than I was 10 years ago. And for that, I feel lucky.
Well said!
I feel exactly the same way. I can not seem to avoid the overwhelming media coverage that started last week. I remember and don’t feel a need to tweet it, post it on FB, write a blog post about it or watch a week’s worth of television coverage about it. I was assaulted by it the day it happened and don’t wish to be assaulted again. I prefelr to grieve privately.
I feel exactly the same way. Thank you for articulating what I couldn’t find words for.
I feel the same. I was horrified when it happened, and remember sitting in my room crying my eyes out. I remember not feeling safe for quite a while afterward. But now I choose not to watch the coverage or read the posts about it. I’m not ignoring it, I just do not feel that it would be of benefit to me to relive most of that. I have forgotten none of it.
I’m with you on the 9/11 ambivalence. Yes, I remember. I cannot NOT remember, and the events from that day have definitely changed our country and our lives irreparably. I could watch & read all the coverage & be caught up in the memories & details, but what good would that do for anyone? I have no personal connection to it; it is not my grief. The memorials may be soothing to those that have lost loved ones, but I’m not exactly sure of that either.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that noone in this country will ever forget these events, least of all those who suffered personal tragedies. Why do we need to make it a media event?
Thank you for the links. They were beautiful. And thank you for not joining in the remembering September 11 orgy. All the coverage has sort of bothered me and I wasn’t really sure why I felt that way. But the more I think about it, it just makes me feel like they’re trying to commodify that event in some way. It’s not a thing that you would make toys of or make into a movie the way they do with so many things we’re nostalgic for. And we’re certainly not nostalgic for it. Of course we all remember it. I doubt we even need help to do so.
We focus on two things on 9/11. The largest and most important is my son’s birthday. He just turned Five!
Right after he was born, when I came out of my immediate baby-daze, I looked around for something else, something deeply positive to balance what I knew would be an endless commentary that goes “September 11th… well THAT’S quite a Birthday!” (add grimace much of the time)
As it turns out, September 11th, 1906 (100 years before the birth of my boylet) is the recognized inception of Gandhi’s Non-Violent Movement in South Africa. Where all his amazing peace work and activism began.
(From Wikipedia: “In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony’s Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of Satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time.”)
Of course, we honor the tragedy of 9/11/01…but we really try to focus on Gandhi’s good works. And birthday cake. Always birthday cake.
Oh Taylor I love it! That’s so beautiful.