5 Years and a Dime Later
Yes, I admit, I used that title so I'd get found on today's expected surge of searches for Sept. 11, but I also really did want to write something related to the issue.
I've spent the last week with a sense of forboding about this day. I was honestly expecting something bad to happen. So much so, that last Friday at work, I left some crap unfinished, thinking it wouldn't really matter once Nine Eleven 2006 arrived.
Well, as the uneventful end-O-day draws neigh and the status quo remains the status quo, I've learned what it means to find a dime in the United States Postal Service parking lot today, September 11th, stamped 2001.
It doesn't mean anything.
I'd like to think it was a special message to, "Never forget what happened on this day, in this year, five years ago", or saying, "Today we are safe", but I think if it means anything, it means some mail carrier (maybe Dan, our hottie mailman?) had a hole in his or her pocket today.
It was still a nice little experience though, and I'm glad I got to waste my free thinking on the "What does this mean?", question, instead of surviving mass destruction and devastation.
BTW, I left the dime on the sorting table inside the post office, hoping someone else will have a chance to wonder what it means to find a 2001 dime today.
8 comments:
I'm glad I read your blog. this is my favorite one.
I'm very happy to hear that. But why anonymous?
I'm happy your Sept 11 was uneventful. Every unnatural death is a disaster. I wish I could say that Sept 11 raised the consciousness of everyone to the reality of tragedy. Without mentioning the annual flooding in Bangladesh or the tens of thousands killed on American motorways (except in passing) I wonder if you think my hope is made of pipe cleaner? Fearing I'll become only more desensitized by tragedy, I've stopped watching the news. I can't enjoy life if I think about everyone who isn't and can't. I'm proud you looked for a deeper experience on this day and your posts suggests you did: making meaning is a people thing, it's what I got from your blog. A dime on the counter is the trigger of a gun. Someone else will pick it up and fire away just like you. It was a good memory bomb to drop. Lest we forget and p.s. the definition of tragedy I'm using is the narrow one: a person neither too good nor too bad (in other words, one we can identify with) breaks some social, moral or actual law and meets an end we can envision for ourselves thus strengthening our resolve NOT to violate the same law. America is not to blame, that's not the point, I believe many Americans THINK America is to blame. Is that significant? Is that taking a thesis too far?
We'll never be safe. Safer, yes, but not safe.
Did you ever wonder if someone put the dime there to make YOU (or any one else who might have found it) stop and think?
I did in fact wonder that.
Well Bulent, I'm so happy that you're proud of me. I like reading your blog, and the one about the girl with big ears really got me.
There's so much more to say to your comment, but I'll try to keep it short.
I also don't watch the news anymore. I haven't really watched TV for years in fact.
I read that some time near 9/11, something like a hundred times more people died in an earthquake in some third world country. I think the fact that 9/11 was a hate crime makes it more tragic though, like you say, so I don't think of pipe cleaners.
I don't think you've gone too far.
I truly appreciate your comment. Thank you.
And dear Max, you're right. We can be safer, but not safe. Sad but true.
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