9-11

There are very few people in the world who don’t know what I mean by the title of this article. Some moments in history are pressed into our minds. We never forget them. We can tell you exactly what we were doing when we heard the news.

Those of us who remember know what happened. We have a pretty good idea of why it happened. Still, we try to find some sense in the tragedy. We try to find the nub of information that will unlock everything and bring some logic to the situation.

Each person deals with it in his own way. Some talk of a conspiracy. They believe that there were bombs planted in the World Trade Centre by the US government. One guy on You Tube created a video filled with inaccuracies. It talks about how the number 11 is a significant, stating how New York City has 11 letters and other useless facts.

For me, it all comes down to this. What have I learned from this moment in history?

I didn’t know anybody who died in this tragedy, although I played softball with one of the survivors. What happened at the World Trade Centre and other places on that day has not touched me personally.

I can replay the footage of the planes crashing into the towers, hoping unrealistically that they will miss this time. They don’t, but each time I view the image, the effect is amplified.

What I walk away with from all this is the fragile nature of our existence. We really don’t know what will be happening from one moment to the next. Our lives can be going on quite normally then, bam, something happens that changes everything forever. What endures, though, is love.

One of the immediate effects of 9-11 was that people started connecting again with their own families, their friends and themselves. While it is sad that it took such an event for people to reach out and rediscover all that they have, that is certainly one thing positive that has come out of this terrorist act.