Paid are its defenders by this pomp
On September 11 2001, I was in my classroom at the end of English class. I was in 8th grade. Ten years later, I still remember where I was standing. If I were to walk into that room again, I would be able to stand exactly where I was when the announcement that we needed to turn our tvs on right now came over the loudspeakers. The sky was that perfect fall blue, crisp and clear. My life changed then, watching the smoke billow from the towers. I didn't realize it right away, but life was never going to be quite the same. Parents pulled their kids out of school that day. I didn't live that far from New York. My dog's breeder worked Ground Zero with her search and rescue dog. No one I know died in the attacks, but I will never forget September 11th 2001. I will not forget the lives lost.
And yet, the news this last week has made me gag and choke on something I'm not quite sure I comprehend. I cannot bear this overbearing memorialization of our national tragedy. It is ten years later. It is ten years later and I want to mourn quietly, with peace and contemplation and remembrance, not with pomp and circumstance.
Quiet mourning does not mean I forget. I could not. But I do not want to see this politicized. It should not be made a thing about who is more right. It does ourselves, our wounding no justice.
And I want to mourn quietly because I want to heal. Because it is ten years later and we still treat this wound as though it were still fresh and bleeding. I feel some days as though we keep ripping the scab off and poking it to see if it still hurts. And we will never heal if we keep doing that.
So today I mourn, but in quiet and peace.
And yet, the news this last week has made me gag and choke on something I'm not quite sure I comprehend. I cannot bear this overbearing memorialization of our national tragedy. It is ten years later. It is ten years later and I want to mourn quietly, with peace and contemplation and remembrance, not with pomp and circumstance.
Quiet mourning does not mean I forget. I could not. But I do not want to see this politicized. It should not be made a thing about who is more right. It does ourselves, our wounding no justice.
And I want to mourn quietly because I want to heal. Because it is ten years later and we still treat this wound as though it were still fresh and bleeding. I feel some days as though we keep ripping the scab off and poking it to see if it still hurts. And we will never heal if we keep doing that.
So today I mourn, but in quiet and peace.