9/11 – An Unbearable Weight of Remembrance

~ Bookstooge

Another year, another day, another time to remember what happened. Last year I mentioned how hard it was getting to remember this. Not in terms of forgetting, but in terms of remembering in the face of a whole generation who it means literally nothing to.

I can remember growing up and wondering why Pearl Harbor Day was on the calendar. Sure, I knew that PHD had happened and it was a bad time but that was way back in my grandfather’s day. I was watching anime from japan and I had a sony dvd player for goodness sake. I could say “ohayo” with the best of them (that’s “good morning”). I couldn’t understand why People were still trying to remember something from so long ago.

Now I understand. And it is a weight upon my shoulders. Every year it gets heavier and becomes harder to even think about it, much less publicly remember it. And I will cry each year in private and wonder if I’m the only one left who is remembering and then the next day I will be fine and know that others were grieving as well. I am not alone in my pain and tears. So each year I post about it and then wonder if I’m being a middle aged fool. Until the next year rolls around and I repeat it all over again. I will drag these chains another year so that the kids don’t have to. They will get their own chains soon enough, no need to burden them with this. This is MY pain to deal with.

I will remember 9/11.

29 thoughts on “9/11 – An Unbearable Weight of Remembrance”

  1. I think I read that something like 2/3 of Americans don’t know (or remember?) who the Allies were fighting in the Second World War. Life is all about the forgetting, especially in the age of immediacy.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  3. You have are not alone. Many people remember. Many still hurt. Many still mourn, and many still post about it. And we will probably do so for many years to come. You are right, each generation faces its own challenges and hardships. But there are things we don’t let fade into forgetfulness. For the sake of everyone who suffered that day, we’ll never forget.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  4. I was scrubbed up in a Total Knee replacement in Theatre 4 St Albans City Hospital, Phil and his kids were at the funeral of his first wife, we don’t forget either, even though the news here is all about the queen dying. Sending you my best wishes Booky.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  5. When one has not lived through such devastating events, it’s easy (and somewhat understandable) if they don’t feel the kind of emotional weight you mention. But for all of us who were alive then, and witnessed that tragedy, forgetfulness will never be an issue.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  6. There’s a certain generation who can tell where they were and what they were doing the day Kennedy was shot. And I guess a certain generation who’ll never forget what they were doing on 9/11. I’d just come out of a Dublin Swimming pool and gone into a newsagents; there was a TV suspended above the counter and they were showing footage of the first plane hitting the twin towers (the second plane was still some minutes away). I think what made it all the more horrible – given the cost in human lives – was that it just looked like bad CGI.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I am thankful I have not had to remember a President being assassinated. I think that would cut my heart out, no matter who it was.

      One thing this event has done is make me much more empathetic when mass mayhem and death happens in other countries. While I don’t have the same reaction, I know what the survivors are feeling now 😦

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. Each year this post comes around I think about when i was in hostel on the payphone to my mom and just afterwards one of the girls came running down the steps all in panic and hysterics that world war three started. At that time i was round 13-14 and we did not even have a tv so i did not know what the hel she was on about till i got home the weekend to where cnn updated me with all the images and live footage of people jumping out of windows. Unreal that something like that happened. Its also not long after this that I started feeling that all is not right about this world. Still isnt…

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  8. I watched the second tower crumble live on tv. I will never forget. But I don’t cry about it, or at least, not more than I cry about other aspects of the oceans of human suffering. What makes this more special for you? (Serious question.)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I guess because this is more than just generalized suffering and was a direct attack against my country.
      Also because this was the first time that I realized, on a personal level, just what the end goal of evil is, ie, death and destruction.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. I do remember. I’m not American, but America has always been this half-mythical place we were all interested in, and through books and movies somehow believed to be partly ours. I strongly felt this was a strike against me as well, and it changed the way we perceived the world – it became a grimmer, more dangerous place.
    9/11 was the darkest day (not counting personal tragedies) of my life, even if now now it shares this place with 2/24.
    As Dave said above, you will never be alone on this day.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. Lived close enough at the time to see them in smoke when I went outside. That day was horrible, we were trying to locate my dad but my cell phone didn’t work. No one’s cell phones were working. He was safe but then I remembered my best friend was flying home from vacation and I couldn’t remember the flight number, I knew she was flying into Newark. I finally got her on the phone, I remember her saying she was safe she had come home early , then the towers came down minutes later and just so much crying. We lost friends we found out later. I remember the ministry being so important. Lots of people wanting to talk and asking why God allowed this to happen. It was a tough time. But I also remember how, for a short while people listened and comforted each other. Randomly. I see the Freedom tower regularly. It’s a constant reminder. So no … not alone.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. Pingback: September ’22 Roundup & Rambling – Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s