Remembering...

Is it too cliche to post about 9/11 today?

It is the 11th anniversary, I have changed from a college senior rambling through life to a mother of three settled in the town where I will mostly likely grow old and die.  A mother of three kids who have no idea what happened on this day eleven years ago.

I was on the road when it happened. On the way back to school from a family funeral, many of my family members were in planes that day going all over the country to their respective homes after we gathered to honor my Grandpa, a veteran.

My cousins were dressed in their military uniforms to place the flag over his casket and a folded flag was given to my grandmother.  Many of these cousins were about to be impacted even greater than they could have realized that day as they later took turns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When the news first broke I remember looking from car to car to see if other people were hearing what I was hearing. I pulled off the highway at a rest stop so I could see a TV as the reports on the radio were impossible to imagine. Strangers in northern West Virginia gathered and stood glued together held frozen by the images flashing before us.

But we couldn't stay there. We all had places to be. We talked about heading east to see if there was anything we could do to help.  But, most of us got in our cars and continued.  We continued the exact direction we were heading before.

Years later, we're all aware that we are not exactly the same as who we were before and yet we are never as wise as we were the days following the attacks.  We were one. We hugged our loved ones and forgot the petty stuff.  We said prayers, expressed sympathies and made donations. We prayed.

My children are now 7, 5 and 3 and know nothing about September 11th.  When is the right age to teach them? Do I leave it to school to introduce it and then fill it in with discussions at home? What are the important messages that need to come out of the tragedy that day?

'We will never forget' is our slogan... but what exactly is it that we want to remember? Do we want to remember the frailty of life and appreciate the time we have? Or do we want to remember the cowards that perpetrated the attacks and to never let our guard down? The victims? The heroes? The villains? The quotes? The images?

I suppose, it would be best if we remembered everything. But, that is how people felt about D-Day and Pearl Harbor and so many other tragic events that eventually are just another day in history class for so many Americans.

If I had my choice of one, I would want to immortalize the story of flight 93. Of people who were not trained to be heros but couldn't stand the idea of being part of anyone else's death. With faith, courage and love for others, they risked their lives to make sure that the murderers on that flight would not win.

And after that story came out, I know I am not alone in that every time I got on an airplane... I psyched myself up... just in case the need to fight arose.  Though I could never say what I would do in such an incredible circumstance I'd like to think that forever honoring the passengers of flight 93 would remind us all to be courageous in times of incredible darkness.

And, in immortalizing their story, we would never forget that there are people around us everyday who go to work prepared to risk their lives for others. The firefighters, police officers, military and civil servants that day and every day deserve to be appreciated.

Seeee... so that's why I blog, I was trying to figure out how to signify this day as special for my kids and I talked long enough to get there.  So now, I'm turning off the computer... saying goodbye to the youtube memorials (and the truther crap that gets stuck in there) and baking cookies with my kids. We'll take 'em to every fire station in a 5 mile radius just to say thanks...

thanks for reading,

ps. if you are here to read my 50 shades, click here.

pps speaking of great civil servants (is that what you'd call 911 dispatchers?) I love Mike.