Nine years

I don't have to look at my blog posts from previous years (but I will, after I finish writing this) to know what I wrote about 9/11 the last two years. I have no doubt I said that I used to be paranoid about things (planes flying overhead in particular), but that eventually I stopped being consumed with worry and feeling that impending sense of doom. Time marches on, and people go back to the way things were, as much as they can. (I still don't like to fly, but I did not care for it before 9/11 either.)

The reality is that we have tragedies every day. People get sick. People die. People are hateful. People do bad things.

But people get better. People continue living. And many people are loving, kind, and compassionate.

I don't think I will ever forget 9/11, what I was doing and how I felt. But as important, I want to do my best to be tolerant of others and not to generalize. We must remember that just because one person or even many people from a group do something or act a certain way, that does not mean that every single person is like that.

Fly a flag tomorrow, say a prayer, or watch a program on the History Channel. And if none of those things appeal to you, just try to be kind to others. No matter your religion (or lack thereof), ethnicity, political party, or affiliation in general, what the world needs now is love, sweet love

Or just not so much hate.