September 15, 2021
Twenty years ago last week,
the world changed. Much like the generation before me that recalls the moment
they heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor, those of us who were alive and
aware recall where we were and what we were doing when we heard about the attacks
on 9/11.
Our history is replete with pivotal
moments, some of which we recognize as such at the time, because they’re just
so…. huge.
We humans tend to get
comfortable in our routines, and so we go along, day to day to day and have, if
not a right-out-there attitude of complacency, at least one that is in the
background, and attitude that life will always be like this. We go with an
innate assumption that how things are today, well that’s how they always will
be. I sometimes would put forward a theory for which I have absolutely no scientific
proof or basis at all. My theory is that there comes a point in our lives when
we reach an age that our mental and logical pathways are fully formed, and
whatever, say, the price of a loaf of bread is at that time? Why, that’s what
it should be ever after. We know what’s right and normal, and thus it
shall ever be so.
But the truth is far different
from that. Normal isn’t forever, it’s for now. “The way things should be” isn’t
never-changing; it’s what they are until the next change.
Personally, I think it’s good,
in one very important sense, that we all tend to have short memories and are
able to tuck bad things away as we motor on down the road of life. No one can
live well worrying about what might happen next. We have to let that shit go. All
any of us can ever do is the best we can do. We can be prepared for what we
think might happen. For example, we can know that power outages may occur in
the winter months or during storms, and so have emergency items tucked away, “just
in case”. We can understand how things have been for a long time, but that
events will unfold without our prior knowledge or consent, and we’ll be called
upon to adapt. To prepare for those inevitabilities we can counsel ourselves to
learn to roll with the punches. But then, for our own mental health the best
thing we can do is to close the cupboard door on those concerns and just step
out on faith.
It takes faith to get up every
morning, to greet the day with a sense of optimism. To know that you’re alive
in the moment and you’re here and will face whatever does come next. And most
days, life has a rhythm that we find, that we move to and even sometimes dance
to. Most days are what we would call normal days, and then, as time goes by and
we have a lot of those normal days, we even dare to declare that we are having rut
days.
“How’s it going,
there, friend?”
“Ah, you know, same
old rut. Just living the dream.”
That is the nature of
humanity, and I believe the fact that we behave that way is a sign of our innate
natures and our logic colluding and helping us to survive and for the most part
hang on to our sanity.
One couldn’t avoid spending
time over the last 6 days without thinking about 9/11. I believe it’s good to
reflect on tragic events, to say a prayer for those taken too soon, and maybe
more importantly, for those left behind with giant holes in their hearts. It’s
what makes us human. Life is more than the living we do day to day. It is a
chain of existence that goes all the way back to the caves. We are but a link
in this massive chain of human history, and yet at the same time, we are
human history, here and now.
For my part, and because I
tend to seek out the positive and the uplifting, after I observed the
ceremonies, and listened to the speeches, I focused on looking into the events
of that day as it pertains to one Canadian province: Newfoundland and Labrador.
Because I looked, I found an e-book,
Come From Away: Welcome to the Rock: An Inside Look at the Hit Musical. At
one point in my reading, there was a concept presented that I had never
considered before, and it’s this (paraphrased): we live in a world where the
people of Newfoundland who opened their arms and hearts and homes to thousands
of strangers, and people who would highjack planes and kill thousands of
strangers, exist at the same time.
I believe, therefore, a lesson
we can take forward from those events just commemorated is this: There are far
more of the former, than there are the latter, and therefore there is more goodness
in this world of ours than there is evil.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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