Skipping the Virtual Today

[stitchwhich]

I can't Facebook today. Nor watch TV either, I think. I mourned, I remember, but I just can't continue marinating in the trauma of 20 years ago. I know that for many it is still a wound and the need to share their experiences is still strong. And probably healing. But I just can't.

Comments

[loosecanon]

it's a scab I refuse to pick at.

[mmcnealy]

I read and watch to remember, and to feel. Not to marinate, but to remember how short life is, and random, and to make the best of each day, for we do not know how many we have left.

[stitchwhich]

My "marinating" description has a lot to do with social media and the news. We need to remember, we should mourn and be aware of how precious life is and how quickly it can be taken away. But it seems that all American life must come to a standstill while we read what each person was doing that day, and hear commentators rehash the day, and report about the memorials. And we must be solemn and downcast the while.

For those still in the gripes of the devastation, I support that way of dealing with their grief. They need it. But I don't - I grew up with a daily counter of who died in Vietnam, year in and year out, and how many people died as a result of drunken drivers, and shows all about the holocaust, and so on. A constant focus on Death in America. And I just can't anymore. At some point we have to mark it and put it behind us, determined to learn what we can from it and to release its hold on us. Else those terrorists do win.

[danabren]

It's too much chest pounding pearl clutching pious public jingoism for the sake of being seen and not enough learning.