This is my prayer for today.

I know I make fun of 9/11 a lot, but that's just in reaction to people being such melodramatic d-bags about it. But in reality, I can't believe it's been 9 years since all of it happened. I guess this is the first time I've noticed nearly a decade pass by with such speed. Or maybe its just the trauma of that particular time, I don't know. Either way, whenever I really think about that day, or see news footage from the event, its as if it just happened. All the emotions are still very vivid and fresh--I don't think I'll ever be able to forget that helpless terror, in those few hours before anyone really knew what was going on. Wondering if this was the beginning of the end, and then chastising yourself for being so naive and bible-y. But still wondering.
And then there was that sick sense of unity. One of my most haunting memories from that day was sitting at a stoplight on my way home from school. I looked over at the stranger in the car next to me, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt exactly what they were feeling, exactly what they were thinking, and exactly what they were listening to on the radio. It's a unity that I am pretty confident I will never feel again, that sort of anonymous connection between countrymen born of an epic and uncommon tragedy. I hope I never have to feel it again. It was beautiful in a way, but above all it was terrible, and cost way too much.
I suppose that was my generation's tragedy though. The way Pearl Harbor was for my grandparents. Or the way JFK and John Lennon were for my parents. Its the thing that will define the moment we all grew up. And its the thing that will age with us, as future generations fail to understand because they weren't there, or begin to forget entirely. There will come a day when the average teenager won't know the exact dates of the World Trade Center tragedy, the same way that I don't know the exact dates of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, even though I should. But we as a group will carry it with us forever. And it will always feel like yesterday.