2008 Woodie Awards
The power of memory forever changes
Ricky Young
Issue date: 9/5/07 Section: Perspectives
Gladys Knight and the Pips sang a song a long time ago that I think cuts to the heart of Sept. 11. In the song "Try to Remember" it says, "Memories may be beautiful and yet / What's too painful to remember / We simply choose to forget / So it's the laughter we will remember / Whenever we remember, the way we were."
A lot of people don't like to remember Sept. 11 because it is too painful. We still can't wrap our minds around how something like that happened or, better yet, why it happened. For many, it's still too painful to watch footage of the attack - six years later. The brain is a very efficient self-defense mechanism - whatever hurts it, the brain immediately tries to forget the incident and doesn't think on it again. That can sometimes be a very effective strategy, but it can also cheat you out of good memories associated with the bad. Take my friends in the Armed Forces for instance. Very rarely have I heard them talk about the gunfights, the death, the destruction. Instead they always talk about the times between - the times of slight relief, the smoke breaks afterward, the pranks, the laughs.
For those who choose simply to forget Sept. 11 completely, I might think again. Choosing to forget the whole thing will rob you of some of the good things that followed the tragedy. For instance, what about the relief you felt in your heart when you found all of your loved ones were safe on the ground at home? It was then that you knew how much you loved them and how much more pain you would have felt without them. Do you want to forget that? Or suppose you were one of the people who knew that tomorrow isn't guaranteed, so you turned to your sweetheart and proclaimed your love to him or her and promised to love him or her as long as you lived. Do you want to forget that look in his or her eyes when you said that? And what if you were one of the thousands of people who turned to faith to sort through the meaning of this event, do you want to forget that moment? Do you want to forget the minute you finally trusted in a higher power to help you through life?
I could name thousands of examples of ways the tragedy was accompanied by something good. I bet I could find tens of thousands more whose lives were changed for the better. And I'll ask the question once again: Do you want to forget that? Gladys would say it is the laughter we will remember for the years to come. The wounds have healed and we bear scars in our own way, but we still need to think about the laughter, the kisses, the sweethearts and lovers and family. We still need to remember the troops who wade through blood and dirt everyday and still have the courage to find humor in such a dark place. We even need to think of our politicians who are burdened everyday with a hard decision. But most importantly we need to remember. Whenever we remember that day, the way we were and the way we are change forever.
Ricky Young is a regular columnist. He can be reached at rickmeister110587@yahoo.com
A lot of people don't like to remember Sept. 11 because it is too painful. We still can't wrap our minds around how something like that happened or, better yet, why it happened. For many, it's still too painful to watch footage of the attack - six years later. The brain is a very efficient self-defense mechanism - whatever hurts it, the brain immediately tries to forget the incident and doesn't think on it again. That can sometimes be a very effective strategy, but it can also cheat you out of good memories associated with the bad. Take my friends in the Armed Forces for instance. Very rarely have I heard them talk about the gunfights, the death, the destruction. Instead they always talk about the times between - the times of slight relief, the smoke breaks afterward, the pranks, the laughs.
For those who choose simply to forget Sept. 11 completely, I might think again. Choosing to forget the whole thing will rob you of some of the good things that followed the tragedy. For instance, what about the relief you felt in your heart when you found all of your loved ones were safe on the ground at home? It was then that you knew how much you loved them and how much more pain you would have felt without them. Do you want to forget that? Or suppose you were one of the people who knew that tomorrow isn't guaranteed, so you turned to your sweetheart and proclaimed your love to him or her and promised to love him or her as long as you lived. Do you want to forget that look in his or her eyes when you said that? And what if you were one of the thousands of people who turned to faith to sort through the meaning of this event, do you want to forget that moment? Do you want to forget the minute you finally trusted in a higher power to help you through life?
I could name thousands of examples of ways the tragedy was accompanied by something good. I bet I could find tens of thousands more whose lives were changed for the better. And I'll ask the question once again: Do you want to forget that? Gladys would say it is the laughter we will remember for the years to come. The wounds have healed and we bear scars in our own way, but we still need to think about the laughter, the kisses, the sweethearts and lovers and family. We still need to remember the troops who wade through blood and dirt everyday and still have the courage to find humor in such a dark place. We even need to think of our politicians who are burdened everyday with a hard decision. But most importantly we need to remember. Whenever we remember that day, the way we were and the way we are change forever.
Ricky Young is a regular columnist. He can be reached at rickmeister110587@yahoo.com
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