One way to honor those we lost

If you haven’t yet, please take a moment to honor the victims of 9/11.

Thank you.

Of the many lessons learned over the past 22 years, I have a strange one to share.

My wife was pregnant with our first child when the planes struck the towers. Like everyone else, we watched in horror. She was of course scared and concerned for the unborn baby growing inside her.

Fast forward 3 years, and we were watching a TV program recounting 9/11, when our now young son burst into tears.

“I loved those towers!” he shouted.

We were stunned. He had never seen them before.

Yet somehow, in utero, my wife had communicated a complex and deeply internalized message to him.

I think about this when I see all the arguing today.

It’s not possible to know someone completely. We make assumptions and tell ourselves stories without considering how their actions are driven, not only by their egos but by their subconscious, even by what’s in their DNA – things they may not even themselves know or understand.

We’ve all been through the wringer. All of us.

It’s 9/11. One way to honor those we lost is to remember that we’re all in this together like we were during the weeks and months after the attack. We are, after all, the United States of America, one nation, indivisible.