Had I not been reminded a few times yesterday about the looming shadow of today, I could have forgotten that which today marks the six year anniversary. I think I saw one flag at half-mast today. I didn’t really watch much TV today, which is to say, I watched slightly more than I usually do (big fat none). Nothing was said while I was watching; surprisingly no commercials used it as a shameless marketing device.
I remember immediately after it happened I wanted people to refuse to talk about it. I wanted people to just observe the unfolding events, mourn, and say nothing. That was certainly not the case. Immediately there were all sorts of wild speculations about liberation fronts, neo-Oklahoma City bombers, the CIA, the complete breakdown of society, et al. I was in high school when it happened (my first tell of my age I think I’ve made in my blog), and I remember immediately following, about 10 people were called to the office. Someone said that they were being called down to be told their parents had died. It was too soon; I knew it couldn’t be the case, but what if it was? It just made me want to be in denial longer. Not out of denying the reality of the day, but denying the wild, whispered ruminations.
This is sort-of akin to my treatment after the Virginia Tech shootings. Even know, when people take sagely or knowingly, pretentiously and callously about either the shootings or 9/11, it makes me annoyed or even angry. I’m not one of those “get over it” people, but in some ways, that is what people need to do. For some, trying to probe and scrutinize a tragedy must be a sign of greater compassion or insights into the human condition.
So where do we go from here, then? Do we continue to remember in marginally declining amounts each year? Will 9/11 always represent this sense of weightiness and somberness that we have experienced on these days in the past years? Will our post-modern skepticism win out and we will explicitly decide to refute the sense of mourning as an empty self-conscious form of coping?
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