| Friday, September 11, 2009 |
| September 11th |
 Ten years ago today, I was alone. A choice, perhaps even a selfish one, for earlier that year I had ran away with what was left of my life to Savannah, GA. Toting only a very few possessions that represented not what I had became, but only what I wished so badly to be.
As I reminisced on the year that had passed I dialed up onto AOL and asked Jeeves what had happened on September 11th during the birthday years that had passed me by. There nestled among the search engine results somewhere between the introduction of the Ford Pinto and Camp David Accords, was a misplaced resume’.
Seems Jon was hip to search engine optimization before the acronym SEO was even thought of. There in all of its glory was a condensed synopsis of a computer geek’s life. Yes, I had read it entirely but only because of my nagging curiosity on what the contents had to say or do with September 11th.
It turned out that this Jon Dude had not only the same birthday but was born on the same year. For those of you that know me, the selfish me – this was indeed a travesty. There was no way on God’s green earth that I was going to let some nerdy geekazoid get away with such a matter. I sat there in disgust imagining the stereotypical guy in plaid slacks and pocket protector perv’ing over Visual Basic and Tesla Coils and was prompted to fire him off my very first flaming email.
“Dude! You stole my birthday and I’d like to have it back!”
This began an avalanche of back and forth correspondences over the next few months that eventually landed me on a non-stop flight to Boston to attempt to forcibly wrestle my birthday back from him. Only that didn’t happen. No, for at the bottom of the terminal escalator stood not the nerd of expectation, but a tall handsome figure that made my knees give out from under me and I haven’t walked on anything but air ever since.
I’ll fast forward quickly before this mushy, Cinderella meets Prince Story ejects the sandwich that you just ate for lunch. We did spend our next and first birthday together magically as intended, but the following year we awoke to have the magic ripped from underneath us.
19 crazy men wrestled our birthday away from us and left in its place tragedy, destruction and sorrow. Every anniversary that has passed of this day reminds us to never forget and that it is improper to smile, party-on or celebrate anything. Our birthday had become bigger than us and we both must share it with the entire world.
Today, we're finally finding that it’s okay to celebrate, not the event but for the beautiful day that it is and for the people who walk within it. Somewhere there is a fireman risking his life to save a stranger, a police officer responding to a call for help and a teacher guiding a child in the right direction. Out there today is a volunteer who helps the elderly, the homeless, the poor and the abused. There is a soldier defending us, a Mommy mending a scraped knee and a person simply praying.
It is indeed a Happy Birthday for we wouldn’t have wanted to be born at any other place or time, or to have lived without such a wonderful collection of beautiful, caring people. All who represent what we have become a part of and will never forget or ever leave behind.
To you, to ALL of you who are the candle on our cake that we will never wish to blow out - God Bless. |
Stumble It!
.......posted by Margaret @ 12:33 PM   |
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