9/11 Thoughts

In college psychology they teach you about flash bulb memory--a shared moment in time where very large groups of people remember exactly where they were. It was absurd to me that they used the assassination of JFK as an example when I was in college. Despite being older than most of my fellow students, I hadn't even been born yet when those tragic circumstances unfolded in Dallas. This made remembering where I was at the time quite difficult. I thought the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger was a better example for Americans my age. I remember that clearly. The events of September 11, 2001 are probably the most current example of a flash bulb memory. I bet you remember where you were when you heard the news that both World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon had been struck by planes.

Personally, I felt like the last person in the country to find out about it. I had spent the early part of day writing, listening to music and avoiding the distraction of the internet. At 3:00 p.m. I jumped in my car and headed to the office to drop off some paperwork before going to supervise the night shift at the coffee shop I managed. With a CD playing in the car, I had no idea that anything out of the ordinary had happened until I noticed the electronic sign over the highway read, "Airport closed until further notice." Strange.

Curious what could cause an airport to close, I tuned to the radio and heard the terrible news. At the time I had three relatives who worked in the Pentagon from time to time. I had no idea if they were there, if they were safe. I dropped off the paperwork at the office. Shell shocked, I spoke to a few people there, expressing in no uncertain terms my opinion that we should close all the shops for the rest of the day.

I went to work, spent an hour on the phone there talking to friends and family. We closed at 5 p.m. instead of 11 that night and no one minded one bit. It was a day to mourn, not to buy coffee. It didn't feel right trying to hand someone a cappuccino with a smile on our faces . . . if anyone had wanted a cappuccino. The entire shopping center was bordering on becoming an eerie ghost town.

We won't likely remember this 9/11 in ten or eleven years, but let's take a moment to say a prayer for those who were affected by the events of this day in 2001. For today, and hopefully for a while longer, let's remember the bravery, the sadness, the heroics, the loss but mostly the unity that we felt as a nation in that moment. Let's move forward with a commitment to what was likely the only good thing to come from that moment, our sense of oneness as Americans and our love for one another.