Never Forget. I Remember.

My Father used to speak of remembering where he was when JFK was shot. Each generation has certain key historic moments seared into their brains.

I remember where I was when the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan took place took and James Brady took the bullet to his head instead.

I remember when the space shuttle Challenger exploded carrying teacher Christa McAuliffe.

And like many of you reading this, I recall exactly where I was and what I was doing on this day fourteen years ago.

Today I made a promise to myself to stay off social media from the time the first plane hit, to when the first building fell. At first I doubted the rational in this, but I do believe it forces us (me at least) to be in the moment and respect the lives that were lost on that day.

I don’t have television to (pre) occupy me, so here I am writing instead.

It took me ten years to write about my experiences on September 11th  for this blog. I watched the second tower fall before my very eyes as I stood with a crowd of shocked and desperate New Yorkers on that day. I also included an eloquent post that day from a fellow I HAVE CAT reader who told about her 9/11 experience watching it all unfold from England. Last year, I posted a piece by a friend of mine shared her perspective on the days that followed 9/11.

Taken last year, the hopes of light reaching up to the moon.

If you haven’t read those posts I encourage you to do so. They are all written from the heart and give you very different perspectives of that day fourteen years ago. I still cannot believe that many years have passed and how fresh the wounds still are.

This year, I visited the 9/11 Memorial Museum. I hadn’t planned on it, but a friend visiting from out of the country did. So i went, reluctantly, and was very impressed by how the museum had been curated.

I did, however get into it with a  group of Brazilian tourists at the footprints, which I see as hallowed ground, who were giggling and taking selfies and told me “they didn’t care,” when I asked them to tone it down as this was a sacred place where many had lost their lives. I walked away before I did anything I might regret.

This year, I want to reprint something I’ve been seeing circulating on the internet. I wish I knew who to give credit to for these sentiments but never the less, I found them worth sharing (technically I should have posted it last night, but it’s still very powerful in my opinion and it’s never to late to do what it recommends tody).

It’s advice I hope I can work to internalize and live by this credo rather than think about one day out of the year.

At this moment, 14 years ago, millions of Americans went to bed quietly, with no thought that the next morning their world would change forever.

That night hundreds packed flight bags they would not live to open. Thousands slept with loved ones for the last time. On never knows what a new day has in store.

Let us live each day to the fullest, and never miss a chance to let those dearest to us know of our love for them.

So tonight if you have someone in your love that you love, tell them.