A Day of Reflection

I sat at my desk, preparing a memo for my boss and chugging coffee, just like I did every day.  The sound of distressed voices carried down to my desk in the basement, followed by an unsettling murmur that swept through the office.

One of the attorneys came in and told me that a plane struck the World Trade Center in New York.  We stared at each other in disbelief, and I immediately went online to try to figure out what was going on.  But events were unfolding too quickly for even Internet news to catch up.

And that was just the beginning, ten years ago, on the morning of September 11, 2001.

Photo credit:  blancoriverranch.cold10.com

I’ll never forget the panic I felt when I learned that Washington, D.C. was also attacked.  Grabbing my cell phone, I began calling the friends about whom I worried, only to realize that pretty much everyone else on the East Coast was doing the same thing.  Apparently, we would all have to worry for awhile, as phone lines were utterly overwhelmed.

I’ll always remember gathering with my bosses and co-workers to watch news coverage in a conference room, and then going home for lunch and staring at the TV for a much longer time than the duration of a lunch break. 

Nobody seemed to care.

On my way home from work, I went to donate blood at a hastily arranged blood drive.  Then I met my best friend for a drink at a local restaurant. He and I talked about how we were supposed to go on an amazing trip with friends later that month.  It would be my first ever flight.  Now neither of us was sure we wanted to travel.

And neither of us really felt like dinner, but we wanted to be together and to be in a place where we could be with other people and just feel a sense of togetherness….and, of course, keep watching the news on the giant TV screen.  We sought answers to the big questions – how? What? Why?

I’ve never had a quieter evening in a restaurant.  But a sense of unity emanated from the place, the beginning of a new era to come.  Suddenly, you smiled at strangers and they smiled at you.  Instead of averting your eyes from people you passed on the street, you made eye contact and nodded.

We all knew that we may be vulnerable, but we weren’t alone.

Photo: AP/ Mark Lennihan

I can’t believe ten years have passed since our country was attacked.  I will never forget even the smallest details of that day, and I wasn’t anywhere near New York City.  I didn’t know anyone who lost his or her life that day. I hadn’t experienced the panic that overtook Manhattan.

But I cared, deeply. I felt connected, intensely.  Just about everyone did.  Because this was unprecedented.  And personal…. incredibly personal.

It’s sad that it took such catastrophe to bring us all together in that way, and sadder still that that feeling of unity has faded over the years.

But here we are again today, pausing, as we do every year on this date, to reflect on the enormity of the loss, the assault on our serenity, the force that brought together a nation of completely different people and reminded us that, putting aside our superficial differences, at our core, we’re all the same.

We are one.

So today, we need to reflect.  Reflect, renew, and rebuild.

I think that’s a fitting wish for today…..that we take time to reflect on our collective tragic experience. That we renew our resolve to focus on the fact that, no matter what boxes we check on forms, we are Americans and we should appreciate our commonality.  And, that we begin again to rebuild that feeling of unity and connection and pride in our country.

We are bigger than our political and ideological divisions.  We are better than budget fights and corporate greed and finger pointing.  When things are a mess, we’re in it together.  When things are great, we are great together.

Our unity is one thing they can never take away from us.

Photo: eclipsesource.com

If we give in to apathy, if we attack each other, if the weight of our differences causes us to crumble from within…..then they win.

So, let’s care about each other again.  Let’s focus on what we can do as a nation to lift each other up, to help each other through struggles and to empathize with each other. Let’s remember the way we felt ten years ago today, when strangers cried and hugged each other in the street, when everyone we met – regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, political affiliation – seemed more likely a friend than an enemy.

We focused on our collective experience.  We approached each other with openness where our walls used to be.  We were united then. We can be that way again.

We are at our most powerful not when we flex our muscle, but when we take care of each other, when we remember how blessed we are, and how fortunate we are to be Americans.

Reflect, renew, rebuild.

The best thing we can do to commemorate the tragic events of September 11, 2001 is to smile at each other, to be kind, to care, to work together…..to show that what didn’t break us has made us stronger.  For all our hardships, God has been good to us.  We should be good to each other.

Photo:  Ground Zero Spirit by Thomas E. Franklin