Remember, Reflect, Serve

As I spoke to the children about today, they openly wondered why we were 'celebrating' such a sad day in our history?  My daughter's friend lost her dad in the towers and to them, it was like having a funeral over and over again. It didn't make sense to them why we would want to remember.

Ready to head out the door for school, I hardly felt like I had an appropriate answer - except to say that when we remember, we honor those whose lives were lost - and yes, it is sad but not a bad sad.

Then, I reminded them that the President wants to make 9/11 become a day of service for all.  We serve, reach out to others to help -- just as so many did on that tragic day. 

Later in the day, I read this by Ryan Sager of Neuroworld

Why do we pull the memory of 9/11 out of a box once a year, as a nation, and run our fingers over it? Not to advance the story. Not to deepen our understanding. But to keep the memory accessible. To make sure we know where it is. To remember where we were that day. To trigger little details that might be lost forever if we don’t touch them again this year.

So, as 9/11 becomes more distant, and you ask yourself why we should bother remembering at all, remember this: We don’t remember to learn; we don’t remember to stay angry; we don’t remember to keep from moving on; we remember because we’re human, and that’s how we process our world and keep from coming unmoored.

We remember because that is what humans do -- and it grounds us and reminds us of who we are, and how we want to proceed in the future. To turn the pain of the past into energy for service strikes me as just right.