Jen and I are sitting in the living room watching 9/11 documentaries.
Why?
I don’t know. It’s like misery porn. Why are we subjecting ourselves to this?
Sure, never forget and all but this is like self abuse. Not that we are shutting it off or anything. Not that we can even look away.
This one’s going to be a little depressing. Also kind of irrational and not very happy.
Jen has been re-watching Sex and the City and I’ve been coming along for the ride. We just watched a cheese puff episode that got really real and uncomfortable.
After seeing the World Trade Center twin towers in the opening credits, the episode opened at a party full of New York Firemen. We think the episode originally aired in 2000.
Reality and cheese puff fiction blurred for a moment as a character said he worked at a station in lower Manhattan. Jen and I exchanged uncomfortable looks and speculated that he was very likely dead.
Suddenly the show wasn’t quite as light and fun as it used to be. 20+ years and it is still painful.
It’s not the same. It’s very different. That doesn’t make it bad and it doesn’t make it good, it just makes it different.
Things move on. Sometimes moving on is tough. Sometimes it hurts even when you don’t think it should. Time doesn’t care though, it just keeps going, right?
We found a recent six part National Geographic series about 9/11 and have been using that as our annual remembrance viewing.
It’s been 20 years. You would think it would be easier each year. It isn’t.
Today is the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Never forget.
We will now commence with our annual self torture as we relive it all.
They just rang the bell in New York to mark the time when the first plane hit.
I’ll post again later after I clean up all of the tears.
Never forget, please.
We are a day late but Jen and I just had our annual 9/11 remembrance. We just watch a documentary or two and acknowledge that we still aren’t over it and then we have a bit of a cry.
We are not over it yet. It’s still painful to watch.
I wasn’t going to let myself get caught up in September 11th this year. I was just going to focus on the present and let it go. Then I totally failed at that and went through all of my previous posts on September 11ths over the years.
Two years ago I wrote a big long entry on everything I did that day. I closed it with a little postscript:
My parents had Kennedy. Their parents had Pearl Harbor. My only hope now is that my step kids never get an event of their own.
Well, so much for that. The kids have a thing of their own now. Oh, and our Federal government knew it was going to be horrible and decided to ignore it. 192,000 corpses, all laying at the cheeto dictator’s feet.
Jen and I talked about this a little last night. When I look back at 9/11/01 I feel anger at those who committed the act. I feel sadness at all of the loss. I feel pride in how we the people came together to support each other.
19 years from now, when I look back at the coronavirus pandemic I am only going to feel anger. There won’t be anything else left.
Inside the Red Head's Head 