Solemn Remembrance

‘9/11’

That horrific day shocking a nation and shattering so, so many innocent lives: those killed and their loved ones.  As America witnessed, first responders rushed in, many to lay down their lives in the towers on that awful day. The day that set into motion virtually continuous war, ensuring additional loss of precious lives, while placing lasting imprints and scars on those who volunteered to fight and survived their time in harm’s way.

Trivial in comparison, the felt impact that rippled outward and through time, to more removed citizens who knew one or more of the victims or their families, knew the policeman or firefighters, were friends of our soldiers or their families. I was one of these. Despite the degrees of separation, a self-examination could ensue with the resolve to become different, to never forget. In addition to the ‘macros’ surrounding the event, this writer remembers two particular men, both of whom perished at the World Trade Center site. 

One I would have passed in a hallway; I knew who he was, maybe the converse was true, but I did not actually know him. The other was a team captain from high school, a kinship present. But I never took the opportunity to seek reconciliation for an incident, a cowardly moment of mine, a form of betrayal that occurred in those earlier days.

While I manage ‘most’ days and months, adding up to years without the abdominal pang the reflection above
can bring, tomorrow is not a ‘most’ day.  In addition to solemn observance, gathering with today’s brothers from a church, I will remember these two very different people, two lives tragically cut short. 

I had plans for longer stories that became hard to write, and now there is no time left at the deadline.  Perhaps I can chisel them out in the in the time that I still have.

May God bless you all.