The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the attack on America and the World Trade Center towers in New York City. Ten years. As do many of us, I look back today on where I was on that fateful morning in 2001, a morning that our psyches, our spirits, and the world as we knew it, took a major and indelible shift. I was in my dorm room in Palo Verde Main at Arizona State, sleeping snuggly in my tiny, single lofted bed. I woke up to a phone call asking me if I had seen what was happening in New York. As I rubbed my eyes and the room came into focus, I ran down the hall to a friend's room, where about half the floor was gathered watching the events unfold. And everything changed.

I write this account to underscore the dramatic shift that has taken place over the past decade, both in my personal life and in the country and world at large. As I watch the touching, heartbreaking memorials and retrospectives on TV today, I simply shift my gaze a few feet over to my sleeping, 6 week-old baby boy, loving on the business end of his pacifier, dreaming of wondrous things, no doubt. Innocent. And I can't help but wish so much for him, almost squeeze my eyes shut and pray that the humanity he is to grow up amongst  is one that comes together more than defies each other; where the sense of community is practiced and celebrated, not only on the coat tails of tragedies or their respective anniversaries, but even in between.

Hoping, wishing, and praying are all gestures that surely don't hurt in creating a better future for our offspring, but taking action and channeling this hope through behavior is something I know I can do for him today; to model for him behaviors of kindness, community, expression, resilience, selflessness, respect, optimism, and courage. Not just in the aftermath of tragedy, but even when the dust settles. For whatever kind of world it is that our Max is to inhabit throughout his life, I wish for him that he will live with an infrasturcture of qualities that will carry him through in times of adversity; stop to appreciate something simple and beautiful; discover his strengths and use them to help another; to love.

9/11.

"Never Forget".

We see this beseechment on everything from t-shirts to posters, status updates to now textbooks. "Never Forget". What does it truly mean? To remember the events of that day- the chaos, the confusion, the tears? These images are forever captured in our memories. In addition, and more importantly, may we never forget the heroism that occurred on that day; the banding together of forces and the people who lost their lives, and what they represent. The families that pulled themselves off the floor from the shackles of their own despair and moved forward in the face of ineffable sorrow. The courage and the healing that came out the darkness of that day. We must not forget THESE things. For these are the residual images and emotions that we can pull strength from, teach our children about, and use as a representation of what we are capable of as a country and as individual beings. This is what I want to instill in my son, the beautiful gift we've been given who will continue on long after Josh and I are gone, and hopefully living in a world that is stronger, kinder, and more self-realized than we left it.

I love you, Max Samuel.