(Originally Published Tuesday, September 11, 2012 – Blogger: One Daughter’s Point of View)
Two years ago I reflected on my memories of 9/11 – that fateful day in our nation’s history when we as a nation collectively lost our innocence.
My nephew wasn’t quite two-years-old that day. But this summer, I witnessed his eagerness to sign the book in the 9/11 Memorial Chapel at the Pentagon almost eleven years after that horrible day.
He obviously wasn’t old enough to grasp what was happening that day in 2001, but his generation has been so impacted by that one day in history. It changed how his generation would see the world. Terrorism became a part of his generation’s everyday vernacular. Bin Laden was the new boogeyman. Yet through it all, flags are waving higher and stronger, almost with a heartbeat of their own.
It really was the dawn of a whole new world the morning on 9/11/01. How many of us define events by pre-9/11 versus post-9/11. That day has become a lens through which we all now see the world around us.
When I took my nephew to DC for his first visit I decided to sign up for the Pentagon tours. I thought he would enjoy it given his military legacy. I asked him what he knew about the Pentagon before we left and he said without hesitation that it was attacked by terrorists on 9/11. During the tour, we paused at the 9/11 Memorial Chapel. I watched as he bowed his head, said a silent prayer, and then signed the book.
This has become a new 9/11 vision for me and one that today, on the anniversary of 9/11, I couldn’t quite shake. It was a vision of a child – who was just a baby on 9/11 – reverently signing a memorial book at the Pentagon. It was a vision of our national healing, slowly progressing over time. It was a vision of the 9/11 generation growing up and helping to carry the weight of 9/11 the rest of us have carried, and in so doing, easing the burden for us all.
A Robynn’s Chirps 