There’s not much more that can be said, which hasn’t been said today, or in any of the 18 anniversaries or days in between. Most, not all, but most of, the memory essays now feel out of tune. The focus of the stories I wrote in the days after 9/11 — “How to talk to your children” pablum meant to fill time until the next Pentagon soundbite, they seemed like — they’re all adults now. Some of them are students I work with today. But the underclass students have no living memory of that day at all. It’s history to them. And next month we’ll mark the 18th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, meaning we’re just a few months from having a young adult serving there who wasn’t alive on September 11th. That has also been noted.
We’d do well to look up, and not be afraid.
Plus, Carlin was on to something, too:
Today was a day for the purple shirt. That means a purple or black tie. The purple shirt also has french cuffs. And I wore black cufflinks yesterday. So a purple tie. Which still leaves the cufflinks question. I went with these nice shiny numbers.
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My mom gave them to me. Pretty nice, no?
No idea what the engraving was meant to be, but the gears move!
