On this day (the 11th)
A lot of people still ask on this day, 'Where were you when...'
I think I have a slightly different, far more important question:
Where are you now?
One aspect of healing over a loss, or horrible experience, is to be able to move on from that event, that awful thing that happened. I am sad for those who cannot get past such a thing; their lives become defined by something horrible, a terrible thing that they have made part of themselves. I do not speak of trying to forget, or pretending that something never happened. Events in our lives change us, leave marks. A major event can be inspiring, can be harnessed to bring a person to new heights; yet obsession can also bring a person to new depths.
Obsessing over an event can also be blinding. Studying and understanding an event can lead to insight, on how to cope with similar in the future, or even preventing something similar from happening. Not letting yourself step away from it, however, means the world moves on without you, doing things you cannot see, expect, or understand. The plans of others have changed; if you haven't, so much the easier for them. More simply put in the form of cliche, barn doors, locks, and escaped horses.
There are quite a few people who can't seem to move on. Focused on the events of eleven years ago, they want to bend the lives of everyone else to prevent that specific event from happening again, without logic or compassion. Or with pure emotion, lashing out with anger and accusation if anyone dare suggest not following lockstep in a misguided plan. This includes choosing to keep such misguided plans going in fear of those who cannot think or move on removing them from power. Either the incompetence of fear, or the greedy cynycism, neither should be qualities of leadership.
It is in the spirit of moving on that I didn't remember the significance of the date 'til someone mentioned it to me. Anger and hatred have burned out years ago, leaving wariness and disgust--more toward those so-called leaders in the US than toward those who have less direct effect on my life than the weather.
How can a person, a nation, a people better themselves in any way, if they cannot move on from terrible things? There is a vast difference between not forgetting, and obsession.
I think I have a slightly different, far more important question:
Where are you now?
One aspect of healing over a loss, or horrible experience, is to be able to move on from that event, that awful thing that happened. I am sad for those who cannot get past such a thing; their lives become defined by something horrible, a terrible thing that they have made part of themselves. I do not speak of trying to forget, or pretending that something never happened. Events in our lives change us, leave marks. A major event can be inspiring, can be harnessed to bring a person to new heights; yet obsession can also bring a person to new depths.
Obsessing over an event can also be blinding. Studying and understanding an event can lead to insight, on how to cope with similar in the future, or even preventing something similar from happening. Not letting yourself step away from it, however, means the world moves on without you, doing things you cannot see, expect, or understand. The plans of others have changed; if you haven't, so much the easier for them. More simply put in the form of cliche, barn doors, locks, and escaped horses.
There are quite a few people who can't seem to move on. Focused on the events of eleven years ago, they want to bend the lives of everyone else to prevent that specific event from happening again, without logic or compassion. Or with pure emotion, lashing out with anger and accusation if anyone dare suggest not following lockstep in a misguided plan. This includes choosing to keep such misguided plans going in fear of those who cannot think or move on removing them from power. Either the incompetence of fear, or the greedy cynycism, neither should be qualities of leadership.
It is in the spirit of moving on that I didn't remember the significance of the date 'til someone mentioned it to me. Anger and hatred have burned out years ago, leaving wariness and disgust--more toward those so-called leaders in the US than toward those who have less direct effect on my life than the weather.
How can a person, a nation, a people better themselves in any way, if they cannot move on from terrible things? There is a vast difference between not forgetting, and obsession.