Today is the 10th Anniversary of the attacks that took place on September, 11, 2001 in New York and Washington D.C.
I could spend this post talking at length about where I was that day (in my junior year at Marquette – in my a third story walk-up apartment after having dropped off a friend at work) or how I felt (scared, worried, confused), but instead I am going in a different direction.
What happened on 9/11 was bigger than any of us individually. It impacted people around the world and continues to do to this day. In the ten years since these horrible events society has experienced a number of other tragedies – Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the earthquake in Japan earlier this year, the horrid shootings in Norway and Arizona, and the myriad of other situations that do not make it onto the front pages – and they all leave people wondering why, how could this happen, what do we do now, how do we move forward.
Many of these questions are beyond anything that any of us will ever be able to fully answer or comprehend. We will never truly know or understand why, and we don’t need to. We can only control our reactions to these actions and our own thoughts and emotions. In my opinion, people who embark on these actions are not acting in a rational way – they are being ruled by emotions. Emotions are powerful, they drive us to do some very awesome and sometimes very stupid things. Regardess, emotions need to be tempered with rational thoughts and actions at times to avoid taking things a bit too far.
Now, what does this talk of emotions have to do with 9/11? I often wonder if there wasn’t so much hatred and misunderstanding in the world, would things like 9/11 happen? If we all took the time to stop, and think, and learn, might we avoid these horrid actions that lead to so many long-lasting consequences? Might we have fewer children whose innocence has been taken away after having seen the impact of extreme hatred? Might we have more cooperation and love and respect?
Last night I was sitting in my backyard, reading and listening to music while enjoying the perfect Minnesota evening. There was a bit of a chill in the air so I had to wear a hoodie and the air was full of fall smells – leaves, a bit of dampness, and bonfires. All of this in the city too.
As I tweeted last night, “I love when a song just captures my thoughts perfectly” and I must have done something to please the ipod gods, since it kept playing the most perfect songs to reflect the moment and me.
This lead me to think – what would I put on a playlist to reflect or represent me? Not necessarily about a specific moment or situation, but me. Who I am. What makes me happy. What explains a bit about what goes on in my often overactive imagination. What I think about myself and what I think others think about me.
Fast-forward to this morning and I’ve decided to have a go at creating this playlist. I’m going to use Spotify to house it for now, and at some point I may publish it for others to listen to.
I think this is going to be an interesting exercise for me. I often say that my life can be described by a series of song lyrics, so it’s about time I put together the music to do just that. Plus, it’ll make me do some thinking and reflect upon various things. As I’ve said before, if you stop thinking, challenging, reflecting or learning you’ve stopped living. Asking yourself and others difficult questions isn’t a bad thing – it’s a part of the journey we are all on.
Has anyone else tried doing this? Anyone want to play along at home?
I hope everyone (in the States at least) is enjoying this holiday weekend. Enjoy.
I need to buckle down this weekend and get stuff done. I need to buckle down this weekend and get stuff done. I need to buckle down this weekend and get stuff done.
Maybe if I say it enough, I’ll actually get out of bed and do things?
I digress. . .
Finally, August is over. Well, technically I still have 1.5 days left in what I consider to be August (there’s a few others that may understand this), but they will be fairly easy, so the major part of it is done. I think I did pretty well. Things went smoothly, for the most part, and we got a lot done. I didn’t do so well with getting enough sleep and eating decent food, but sometimes stress does odd things to us me. Time to restart and refocus, now that this month is done.
I also need to do stuff around my house, per usual, and go grocery shopping to replenish my dwindling food supplies. One can live on Honey Nut Chex and cold press for only so long.
I will also take part in some much needed fun, relaxation, and hopefully some laughter. Nothing replenishes me after a stressful time like these 3 things.
I’m going to end this post with a song. Just seems perfect for the clouds that greeted me this morning and for the relaxing weekend I hope to have.
