Remembering.....

The first time I saw Ground Zero, it looked like this: 

My son was  only 10 months old when the September 11 attacks happened. I was so comforted by him, glad that I could not even explain such events to a child so young.

But I knew someday he would have to hear the story.
9/11 is the Pearl Harbor moment of my generation. As a teacher it is a sobering responsibility to teach  a new generation about it and do it justice. The kids in my classes now are 16, and are the first generation with no real first hand memories of the events. 

The next time I saw Ground Zero a couple of years later, this is my most memorable impression:

The makeshift memorials, the thousands of items of love and support that poured in from all over the world. It was truly a day where the very worst of humanity brought out the very best in humankind.

This past November, it was time to take my now 13 year old son to New York, and it was time to tell him. We visited the beautiful and quite peaceful sanctuary in NYC and he heard the story, right at the place it happened .

It was very painful to see him react with the same shock and sadness I had felt, and I knew it was very important to be there. I was struck again by not only how important history is, but by how deeply personal it is as well. 

Now, it's up to him. He inherited this troubled world and it falls to him and all of our children to try and make it better. Still the best words I have heard about 9/11 to this day: