Today

Today there is a lot of talk about Sunday going on. Almost ten years ago, America was changed forever. Terrorism was no longer a foreign concern in some other part of the world, happening to other people. It became a tragedy in our own backyard. This morning on my favorite radio station, the morning DJ's talked about what they were doing and where they were on 9/11 and how they felt. Some of you have children now that weren't even born then or too young to care about what was going on. I wonder what a teenager or a 20 somethings perception of 9/11 is. I can say that I understand December 7th, 1941 but I can't possibly know how that generation felt. What fears they had. So I guess I don't expect someone under 20 to "get it" in regards to 9/11. I won't ask you if you remember where you were or what you were doing...most of you do of course. But what about afterwards? Did you donate money? Blood? Your time? Did you watch the news every waking moment? Did you feel guilty if you didn't? I remember distinctly, on 9/15, our 17 year old daughter came into our room and asked, "can we watch a movie?" For a brief moment I was so angry at her...but then I remembered, she's 17, the world goes on. In the blink of an eye, her senior year of high school was defined for her. So I happily said yes and she could pick whatever movie she wanted. She chose Grease.  The next day, she chose The Sound of Music. The world moves on.

On the wall outside of my cube at work, I hung up a list of the names of the victims of 9/11. It took 17 pages, in a size 9 font. I sit off of a busy hallway. Lot's of people see it. Some of them comment. Some of them can't. It really hits you hard when you see all those names. All those lives, gone. Mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, spouses...

I expect to have a few good cries this weekend.

This isn't something I've shared with too many people ~ it's something I feel a need to do ~ it's something that feels important to me. I'm going to share it with you now because maybe it will inspire you to do the same. Maybe you'll tell someone else about it and they will be inspired to do the same. Maybe I just want people to think about it...and never forget.

Every year on 9/11, I go to a Fire Station and say thank you to all of the fire fighters. It isn't always the same station. A couple times I went to a Police Station. Sometimes I take a gift certificate to a local bakery with me. Once it was a bouquet of thank-you balloons. Sometimes I just go in and shake their hands and say thank-you. People don't say thank you enough. And you don't really have a lot of opportunities to say thank you to a first responder. Sometimes you just have to go the extra mile...they do.

At lunch today, I'm going to go for a walk and visit the new 9/11 memorial. It won't officially be dedicated until Sunday, but I can go and see it. If I happen to run into a first responder, I'll shake their hand and say thank you. If I happen to run into a member of our armed forces, I'll probably have to hug them.