Re-Telling 9/11

September 11th Memorial.org - Suggestions for Educating & ResourcesAt first, he was a little excited, which gave me knots in my stomach and throat. For a 5-year-old, watching a huge building burn sends the message “this is just a movie” in an instant.

So I sat down in a chair pulled closely to the television, grabbed the remote, and put him in my lap. It took me a few seconds of staring at those buildings to grasp what I’d say. It’s then that I noticed the clock on the re-play of coverage from 9/11/2001 - I only had about 15 minutes to tell this story, to prepare him, before the first building would fall.

“Those building were real, Conner,” I choked back the lump in my throat. “and they were in New York City.” This grabbed his attention, mommy was just there.

I told him that those 2 buildings were very, very tall. I pointed out the other buildings surrounding 1 and 2 World Trade Center, and asked him if he thought those buildings were large. He agreed that they were and that the towers were gigantic.

I told him, calmly, that some very mean men didn’t like our country. That those men did something horrible to us. I lowered my voice and spoke in his ear. “They took 3 planes and they aimed them at our buildings. They wanted to hurt a lot of people. It was a very mean thing, and a very sad day for us.”

At this point, you could tell he understood this wasn’t a movie. That those burning buildings were his burning buildings.

“But why?” he replied.

And I thought for a second before answering.

“Sometimes, people don’t do the right thing. Those men thought hurting us would make them feel better. They were wrong to do it, and we went to war with their countries.”

I paused again.

My children, our children, will never know what life was like before September 11th. They were born into this world, into the war that followed, and have never known any different. This is just something I’ll never completely grasp.

Then I answered his question “I don’t know why. We will never know why.”

So he sat quietly on the bed while I brushed my teeth. I watched from behind him as the 1st building fell. He grabbed a pillow and considered covering his head as I reassured him that this was 9 years ago, but recalled me sitting in my desk Junior year of high school wanting to do the exact same thing - hide. He was ok and he understood as much as he could. I guess we all do. It’ll never be something we can completely grasp. It’s always going to be a big question - why?

The best we can do is re-tell this story to our children. Let them learn of the days our country bled. Tell them how it made you feel, how uncertain we all felt, and how being scared that day was one of the most unifying things you’d ever witnessed. How being American means to love our country, and those who fight for us, but also about compassion to those who don’t believe in what we believe.

He didn’t watch the second tower fall, but I did and I was reminded that if we talk about it forever, it’ll never be forgotten. Those people will never be lost. And then our children, and their children, will never forget. That’s the best we can do.

Edited to add, 9/9/11:

Over the years, I’ve dealt with how 9/11 impacted my life/my generation specificially. My story is similar to others, and different from many. That’s the best part about stories sometimes - perspective. 

See? Even I switch it up:

We didn’t start the fire - Hush, Amanda 5/14/2011

Or consider this:

 9/11 Memorial Review: At Ground Zero, Staying Above Ground Matters (vide0)

or this:

9/11 Memorial Time Lapse (video)

 And on today, I just want to point out one thing: EVEN 9/9/11 is creepy. It’s like we got TWO this year.