FAP925: A lesson to remember from September 11

11 September 2009 1 views No Comment

FAP925: A lesson to remember from September 11

Today’s Financial Aid Podcast is going to be different than usual, on account of the fact that it’s September 11, 2009, eight years after a day that we can’t and shouldn’t forget. No scholarships or Scholarship Points today or mentions about business as usual, because there’s more important stuff to talk about.

There will, of course, be plenty of regular media coverage about the day, be plenty of stories. It’s sobering to think that some of you listening today were 9 or 10 years old at the time; others were just hitting your teenage years. Some of you may not even remember much from that day, and that’s okay.

I was at Ground Zero earlier this year, in March, for a conference. The hotel I was in was actually right across the street from the towers. It’d been decimated when the towers fell, and was more or less brand new as a result, only a few years after a total refurbishment. My room, on the 29th floor, overlooked the site where even today, work is still going on cleaning up and preparing it for the eventual new construction and memorial.

I’d visited the towers as a kid, growing up in New Jersey. My grandparents would take us to the roof observatory and we’d be able to see the entire region, as far as two or three states away on a very clear day. There was a guy who used to sell snacks and stuff on top, too. I don’t think he was supposed to be there, but for a little kid, it was great.

Today, it’s hard to put into words what the area is like. If you’re attuned to such things, if you believe in such things, there’s still a tremendous amount of energy in the place. There’s still a very visceral, gut feeling about the entire area, about what happened there.

Rather than rehash what will inevitably be all over the media, I’d like for you to do an exercise.

WTC2, the South Tower of the World Trade Center, collapsed after 56 minutes from fire. The people in that building who perished did have about an hour and some communications access to say goodbye, to communicate to some degree, though nowhere near as much communications capacity as today. Some were able to say goodbye, and that’s the basis of this exercise.

For an hour today, I ask you to do something different. From 8:46 AM to 9:59 AM (impact to South Tower collapse), take that time away from media coverage, away from the daily distractions if you can, if possible, and write out what you would say if you were facing your last hour alive. Pop open your email client or word processor or whatever and take that time to put down into words what you’d want to leave behind, and limit yourself strictly to that hour.

Who would you write to? One person, a bunch of people? Close friends? A child? A parent?

What would you say? What words would you want to leave behind, to endure beyond you? Tell someone that you loved them? Put into words life lessons for those who come after you?

Write it down. Put it out of your mind and into a tangible, communicable reality. There is always something left unsaid at every goodbye. Some of you know this better than others, but it’s a lesson we will all learn, and usually too late.

Then send it. Send it now, send it today, send it while you are still able, because one day, you won’t be able to any longer.

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