So. I'm sharing a very graphic you tube tribute. Why.......?
Well, we all know that the day *after* 911 I swore off watching anything violent - movies, TV shows, etc. I'm a HUGE Sons of Anarchy fan, but if they start torturing people - I just leave the room and come back when the scene is over. I don't watch movies about death or murder or terrorism.... why should I - I sat and watched all the original footage on the day of 9/11 - people jumping from burning towers, planes flying into the towers, people running for their lives.... and not making it out.
That was enough pain and sorrow and tragedy for a lifetime and it was real. No one mass produced it. No one directed it... well - I guess they kind of did... but you get my meaning.
However, there is a reason *this* blog and my own personal journey has garnered and kept over 20,000 monthly readers - and we *alllll* know it's not because I'm an awesome writer with perfect grammar.... hahaha - rather, people come here for the reality of what having a spouse who cheated on you *is* like. The reality of the journey we're on from broken to whole. The pain, the tears, the anger... it's all here -in real time. Honest. True. Real.
People are drawn here because we spent a lot of time in our world putting a happy face on ourselves and our lives and moving on..... but often, deep down, we have emotional pain which create's scars no one knows about. We bury our feelings and in some respect.... we then bury ourselves.
We all "remember" 9/11 - but I think it's important to actually RE.MEM.BER. Not just with pretty songs and ribbons and stickers on our car and facebook pages.... but we actually get back into that ditch. We crawl back into that space where the Nation and the world held it's breath when the second plan just.... disappeared into the tower.
There was this bizarre/amazing movie that Robin Williams did - What Dreams May Come - it has a bit of a complicated story line, but the gist is that his wife commits suicide and he has already died and is in heaven. The wife goes to "hell" because committing suicide is a sin - and while he couldn't seem to connect to her, or fully understand her in life - he leaves heaven to go to her in the place she in to save her.
The point of the movie was the as a husband he couldn't really understand or support his wife until he put down everything he had and just WENT to her in the place she was.... that dark, emotional, painful - REAL place.....
Many of you have *been* to that place with me.....
So, this video is 'that place' for 9/11 - the footage they stopped showing *years* ago because it was "too upsetting".... you don't have to watch it - you can always watch the sweet Budweiser horse one - but for me, it's good to have that REAL reminder of what NY went through. What the people in the towers and on the planes went through that day.....
The author of the video later goes back and apologizes for the video and it's graphic nature- feeling she might have done a disservice to the families and victims - however, I think what she made - *at the time* was as raw and real as the events themselves. It was made at a time when stranger across the nation were getting tattoo's for a city and a people they never met... to honor them. This video is a bit of a 'tattoo' on the mind - and I think it serves an amazing purpose as we move away from the event in years - we should be careful not to move away from the reality of what happened, because... it could happen again.
Sigh.
The people are screaming, swearing, people are jumping... because that's what happened. Images and moments in time that I thought were seared into my mind and heart were, to my surprise, actually forgotten as I watched them again..... and as our country still teeters on war with people who actually *do* these kinds of things, a reminder of what has happened probably isn't a bad thing.
Oh... and yes, the irony of LeAnn Rimes singing Amazing Grace is especially poignant.
So, yes - never forget. Never. Ever. Forget.
And yes, by all means sticker up your cars and your facebook pages, too.