I logged into the Compendium for the first time in years a few days ago, and didn't find anything to reply to—except for Boo's existential dread thread, where I had left someone hanging on the promise of a lengthy reply that never came (and which there's no point even replying to now, since the person I left hanging is themselves gone!).
But when today came around I thought of nightmare975's
September 11 thread and knew that I'd still be logged in to the Compendium. I was going to go to that thread and comment about how even at the time (though I don't recall if I ever voiced my thought) the notion of "Never forget!" had struck me as a vain folly, and how time had borne this idea out, with the last annual remembrance being in 2010 with the literal words "blah blah never forget" and nightmare himself not having logged in since 2012...but I didn't do that. Because the whole thread was closed. You can't post in it anymore.
So much for eternity!
Today, most college graduates weren't even alive for September 11. I was in college myself at the time, and it was a very surreal day. But the sanctimoniousness of it has long faded. It may have been prominent in our own minds and lives, at the time, but it was just another day, wasn't it? The 2000s would go on to show us wars and genocides and tsunamis and earthquakes.
22 years on, September 11 is a testament to how events are only important in the minds of those who care about them, and cares are often fleeting and in-the-moment. Today, with American fascism in ascendancy and the Bush years long since repudiated and rents doubling and redoubling, it would be positively quaint to imagine that losing a couple of buildings and getting a bit of a scare might be the worst of our problems.
Not to gloss over the impact of that day on those who were there, and those who died or would die from it, or who lost loved ones or would lose loved ones. The deaths of so many firefighters in the line of duty is something I don't think I ever fully wrapped my head around. But that has been long dwelled on, and it's not the only tragedy in the world.
Such is the benefit of having over 20 years in the rear-view mirror, and the wide perspective of life experience entailed thereby: Beyond the passions of the moment, things aren't always what we make of them at the time, and all things pass. It's kind of fitting that you can't even post in nightmare's thread anymore.
From Nu all things come, and to Nu they return.
