12 Years

As an educator living in a world of children, historic events, both the good and the bad, are often re-imagined through the lens of a child.  Looking back on 9/11, I realize that only a handful our current students had even been born yet, and that the event itself would become part of their reality only as a "taught" history lesson rather than an experience they had lived through.

In a way, I envy their naïveté on the subject. But I am equally troubled by their lack of context and their insulated "empathy" for a moment in time when all Americans stood together, emotionally and physically, for their countrymen and their country.

My son was only three years old at the time. We drew stick figures and awkward city skylines on drawing paper to try and translate for him the story that was blaring 24 hours a day from the television. We talked about the "bad men" that had flown their planes into buildings, and we struggled to explain something that to this day we do not understand.

We also bought a potted camilia plant and put it on the patio. We called it the 9/11 plant so that we wouldn't stop thinking about what had happened.

I  watered it for twelve years and it has seen some rough times. It's now healthier than it's ever been and it's about to bloom again.

Hope springs eternal.