September 11

It's been ten years.

I wrote a long post, with lots of words, but I erased it. It had the potential to be taken the wrong way, and it never quite got my true meaning across.

"Remember" people say. "Never Forget."

I hate seeing footage of 9/11. I hate seeing the same photos over and over again. For a week after the events I was obsessed with viewing them, and then I realized that there was nothing new there. I was being shown images that I no longer wished to see. I don't think those images have ever stopped being flashed on screens, or that 9/11 has ever really been set aside. It's like a drum and whenever anyone starts to let their guard down and enjoy life for what it is, someone takes out the 9-11 drum and bangs on it a few thousand times.

Now that the 10th year is rolling around, I still have no desire to read any more or see any more of what I already know. This was a horrible, tragic event, that some bad guys cooked up and carried out. I know the tragedy. As a patriotic person, I feel the wound. But I have no desire to allow myself to be manipulated by it.

I hope we can look back and see the changes that have been made. I hope we can see which lessons we learned were valuable, and which were just a negative reaction to fear. I hope we can remember ourselves and our loved ones, as well as the integrity and respect for ourselves and others. I hope we can somehow still come out of this as more compassionate instead of more angry or frightened. It would be a shame to do otherwise.