Live every day to the fullest.
In other words: eat more Flourless Chocolate-Chip Cookies.
I struggled with today’s post.
Mostly, I struggled in deciding whether or not to publish any post today. Today: September 11th.
I’d completely forgotten until last night. My initial reaction was to unschedule the recipe post I’d written (ironically enough, for New York-style Cheesecake) and take a day off from blogging, in honor of the victims of 9/11. It seemed wrong and superficial to talk about desserts on the anniversary of a day so many innocent people lost their lives.
However, I’m not sure the victims of September 11th would want that. I think they would want us to honor their memories by celebrating life; by not taking a single moment—or a single person in our lives—for granted. Yes, it’s cliché to say, “Don’t take anything in your life for granted.” But just stop for a second and really think about the meaning behind the cliché. Think about aspects of your life that you do take for granted.
Personally, I can always use a reminder to put the little things—a failed recipe, a bad hair day, even a slow internet connection—in perspective. Likewise with people: instead of getting annoyed at a friend’s bad habit that drives me crazy, I should be grateful the friend is in my life and is therefore able to annoy me.
Also, as horrible as September 11th was, we need to remember that atrocities are still taking place every single day around the world. It’s easy to sit back and pretend we’re being patriotic by waving our American flags and spouting out phrases like: “I’m proud to be an American” and “Support our troops!” But what would really show patriotism would be to get out there and actually do something, whether it be volunteering at a food pantry, writing letters to the brave men and women fighting overseas, etc.
I was so active in high school—visiting nursing homes, making comfort pillows for a local hospital, going to the animal shelter, coordinating service projects through my church… I’m embarrassed to admit that as college work became more time-consuming, I cut back on these other activities and went from helping so many causes to helping very few. I really need to get back into it. Sitting home and pretending to be a good person helps no one.
Question of the Day:
Do you remember where you were on September 11th?
I was in high school, and when my math teacher told us a plane had hit the World Trade Center, I thought he was making a really bad joke. And then some kid did play a really bad joke—he called in a bomb threat to our school, so we spent the rest of the day huddled together in the football stadium. We were hot (It was over 100 degrees), hungry (Our lunches were left in the evacuated building) and scared, with no idea what was going on. Kids didn’t have iphones back then.
But when I got home, I obviously learned that, as bad as my day was, it paled in comparison to the day of so many others.
Going Steady says
I used to commute through the WTC (post-attack), and I thought of those people every single day as the train pulled around that big hole. Even now, every day, I tell my hubby that I love him as he goes to work because you never know if someone will come home–and he used to work in WTC 7, so I’m especially thankful for him. I often think of my friend whose mother was killed in the attack, but this year she decided to honor her mother by BEING a mother and spending the day with her own daughter. I think my friend, and you, have it right–the victims of 9/11 would likely want their loved ones to be happy and safe, and to embrace life, and to remember and honor them by trying to be grateful for what we have while we have it.
This is the first, and probably last, time I will ever really talk about 9/11.
Peace.
Heather says
I was a senior in college and worked at a coffee shop in a mall. That morning I was driving to work, listening to Howard Stern. As he is a NYC resident, his coverage was understandably emotional and serious, a stark contrast from his usual broadcasts. It was just so very real. I think I came in just after the first plane hit. I was utterly shocked. The mall closed early that day and I went home to watch the same images over and over on the news and talk to my parents. The mood was so solemn and somber every where I went for weeks following this. It hit really close to home as I was a flight student attending Embry Riddle Aeronautical University where some of the hijackers allegedly studied.
Liz says
I support the troops… but I also believe supporting them would mean you want them to come home 😉
Sarah says
I just remember that my dad’s papers to resign from the army were blown up in the Pentagon, so they started to try to call him back to the army and put him in Iraq. Still can’t believe that out all the tiny bit blown up, his papers were in that. We got so lucky they sorted it out.
Also, glad you decided to post something anyways, Katie. My uncle’s birthday is 9/11 and though we honor the people who died, we still celebrate him too.
Lori says
I wave my flag and I have my “Support our Troops” sticker on my car because our son just returned from Afghanistan. He spent the past year clearing roads of bombs not only for other military personnel, but for the people that live there…people who throw rocks at the soldiers as they go by. Not all are like that, but, in spite of what the liberal media spews out, our soldiers are still out there, laying their lives on the line for OUR freedom to say what we want to each and every day. Don’t condemn those who wave those flags and shout supposed euphemisms….they may just have a loved one off in some foreign land fighting for your freedoms.