As I drove to work, I wouldn't have noticed the date today—not when it still feels so much like yesterday, and not when I am already feeling tomorrow. That's how my week is: unless it's Sunday, everything bleeds into one long expending of my energies in a dozen different directions.
As I drove to work, I wouldn't have noticed the date today, but for a breath-catching reminder. The kind of reminder that makes you turn off the radio that you weren't listening to anyway; the kind of reminder that snaps a wandering mind into one fixed and focused thought; the kind of reminder we all need on a day like today.
I was on the I-60 West—paying more attention to the police car behind me than the traffic before me—when the shapes of letters formed of paper cups stuck into a chain-link fence caught my eye. There was more: a flag, held by a man, standing at the end of the lettering, which read:
SEPT 11 2001
His worn fatigues and his own old age hinted more at Vietnam than any current Gulf crisis. But there he stood, proud and erect, as hundreds of cars passed underneath him. The occasional hand out the window, a honk from the car next to me—people did notice him and acknowledged him.
I began dissecting the last 15 hours of his life: At the supermarket, and what the cashier must have thought of the old man who was buying hundreds of paper cups; his alarm going off long before most of ours; getting dressed in his army best; loading up the flag; carefully placing each cup in the right hole (having rehearsed it in his mind, or sketched it out on a napkin before); watching the sun rise with thoughts of our homeland's greatest tragedy as fresh as though it happened today; holding rank, as it were, for hours—just to get people like me out of our ego-centric, tunnel-visioned selves, if only for 30 seconds.
Who knows how long he'd been there, or how long he'd stay, but the 15 seconds of my experience with him felt eternal.
The experience has inspired me to make my first 'real' Short Film. I am one of the many who has a very harsh perspective on this war and our current administration. I take great issue with HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of our hard-earned dollars leaving this country, while our children's future in education and otherwise gets flushed down the toilet. I have a lot of resentment towards our government in regards to 9-11.
And that is why needed today. All the cynicism and every doubt was washed clean in the memory of a Nation United in a way that I've never seen in my life: 9-11 USA, where hundreds of millions of people shared a harmony and charity towards each other—a heavy price to pay for such unity, but a wonderful byproduct nonetheless.
That's what I felt this morning. Not resentment. Not anger. Only profound love for this land—my home land. I love the United States of America, and while we fall very short of our forefathers, we are still capable of fulfilling our infinite potential for good in this world.
God help us that we might just be the country He has enabled us to be.
wesman.
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3 comments:
I really enjoyed reading this post. The idea of the mans day, very interesting.
Wes, I often find myself wondering why nobody has flags on there car windows, posted so proudly after the attacks on 9-11. Then I had to stop and remind myself I am one of those people. I am so proud of the country I live in but it is people like you who put the thougts to a writen form and help me to reflect!
Wes,
Do you stop and consider all the people who have died so that you have freedom.You un-informed people want peace at any price. Are you a veteran? Have you sacrificed the ultimate price for your country? Or do you only worry that your son won't have the best of everything? I call that selfish.
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