Sunday is the tenth anniversary of the day that will forever, or for at least a very long time be known as nine eleven. And my heart goes out to all those who are still suffering. I remember exactly what I was doing and where I was when I heard the news...or rather, saw it on the tv. I bet you do too.
I also remember the details of the day Diana died, and exactly where I was during her funeral (on a supposedly romantic weekend away, with me refusing to budge from the tv coverage). Funnily enough that relationship didn't last but poor Diana wasn't the reason!
I also vividly remember the day of the first moon landing. We were sent home from school early to watch it because schools in those days didn't have tv...yep, I'm that old!
I can also remember overhearing my best friend Barbara's dad telling others what he thought should happen to the person who shot Bobby Kennedy. I won't repeat it here.
Closer to home the Newcastle earthquake in 1989 was a shock on a personal level. I was living in England and a phone call from the other side of the world delivered the news that a relative had been killed.
I don't really have a point in writing this post, other than to remind myself how extraordinary some events are, how indelibly etched into our brains they've become and how easy it can sometimes be to take ourselves back to those frozen moments in time. And I also wonder if horrible events embed themselves more deeply than the good ones. I hope not. What do you think?
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Hello Kerry:
ReplyDeleteSome events, we feel, are so beyond the limits of one's own reasoning that they stay forever fixed in the mind alongside the other sights, sounds and memories of that moment. And there they remain.
And, how important it is that we do remember such traumas or feats of incredible human achievement for by remembering then surely 'they' will not have died in vain and the spirit of human endeavour will continue to inspire.
I can't believe it has been nearly 10yrs. I can remember that day like it was yesterday as my friend was flying from Toronto to NY and our NY office was in the world trade centre. I was trying to get him on his mobile all day but the line was dead. I was so scared and upset worrying for him. Luckily his flight from toronto was delayed over night and he never got to NY on 9/11. I feel so bad for the people who weren't so lucky :(
ReplyDeleteI think that strong memory is our brains way of saying 'Lest we Forget'.
Jxx
I can't believe it's been 10 years. I will never forget that day.
ReplyDeleteI was standing in Charles de Gaulle airport and gradually became aware of a very weird atmosphere growing around me.
ReplyDeleteAll the TVs were suddenly switched off.
I asked the man behind the check-in counter what was happening - as he explained to me in French, I just kept on thinking, I must be misunderstanding, he can't be saying what he's saying - I was searching for other words in English that could mean s'ecrouler, to collapse ...
Events amazing and horrendous help us grow and make better choices in life - it's so important to remember both with equal respect.
Every day, but especially on a day like today, I am grateful for all my blessings x
I've discovered your blog via Inside Out & am very glad I did. I remember all these events vividly - even getting the day off school to watch the Moon Landing - the only one I don't have my own memory of is Robert Kennedy. It's amazing how these things stay with you.
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't mind, but I've included you on my Versatile Blogger list.
J x
Hard to believe it has been 10 years - I was living in the USA at the time and it was terribly frightening. It is funny how you remember what you were doing when tragedy struck.
ReplyDeleteDear Kerry,
ReplyDeleteA very poignant post and one that we should all spend time thinking about. I certainly remember where I was and what I was doing when some of the above happened and how I couldn't budge from the TV for hours and just watched the events over and over and over again in disbelief. We have had so many programmes on this week regarding 9/11 and how people are still suffering because of it. I cannot comprehend what the people who were involved went through and we must remember them. XXXX
10 years... yet it feels like it was only yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI too remember where I was and what I was doing when 9/11 footage broke. We were called by a friend and saw the second crash live on TV.. felt so surreal. Then came the reality of it all and the worry about friends in NYC. My grand mother had passed away the day before.. it was not a happy time for me.
I lived in London when Lady Di died, but happened to be in Sweden for a wedding of a close friend. I remember seeing the announcement on the morning news the day after, and didn't believe it. Had to go down to the reception and verify.. Flying into London that same afternoon was like nothing I had ever experienced. One could hear a pin drop.. it was as if there was a vacuum over the city. Then came the ocean of flowers.. the scent could be smelled from far away. People took time off work to guard 'flower trees' in Kensington Gardens. The funeral was brutal.. that note by the kids on the coffin. Their small stoic yet broken bodies walking proud by their dead mother.. Oh horror!
I was born the same year as the moon landing.. :)
Hugs from afar
xx C
In answer to your question, yes. Sadly, I think these world-changing moments do remain forever etched in our minds, sometimes with more clarity than the moments we would prefer to remember. Some, simply because of their magnitude, and because of the sheer number of people they affect. Others because of today's instant media, new media and 24 hour coverage means we are unable to tear ourselves away.
ReplyDeleteI remember where I was for most of these moments. The moon landing was before my time, as was the death of Bobby Kennedy, but the others will never be erased.
I remember the moment they found Stuart Diver alive at Thredbo. I remember the moment I heard of the Pine Creek mine disaster (my father was offered a job in that mine and would have been there, he knew the men). I remember where I was the moment I heard Steve Irwin was dead, the day Christchurch shook and fell. I remember when benazir bhutto was assassinated and the moment I heard that Yitzhak Rabin had been felled. I remember staying up until 3 in the morning the night Julia Gillard took down Kevin Rudd. I remember where I was sitting the moment I heard my mother would die.
There are so many of these life or world changing moments. And they stay, digging their feet into our memories nad our consciousness and there they remain.
(Sorry for the essay. I found you at Inside Out).
Those events are terrible and we will not forget them because they received, and still do, a lot of coverage, but let's not forget the thousands of people who silently die everyday of hunger, AIDS, or malaria, when WE could do something to avoid that ! I agree with you, though, 9/11 changed the world, and not in a good way !
ReplyDeletesome things are just indelibly etched in our memories, usually because of the emotion they evoked. good and bad.
ReplyDeletexxx
extraordinary events that changed the world. I can't quite believe it's been 10 years - I still remember so clearly the eerie silence and utter devastation that seemed to circle the globe.
ReplyDelete