I am writing this post on Thursday, September 11, 2008. Every year on this date I think about how I will mark the passing of another sad anniversary, and I never seem to come up with a tradition or ritual that does the day justice. It’s like there just isn’t anything meanginful enough to represent how strongly the events of 9/11 affected me. How they affected our entire country.

So this year, I’m just going to say what I feel on this little ol’ blog of mine. I figure it doesn’t have to mean anything to anyone other than me, really.

No matter how you mark the 7th anniversary of the attacks on the United States on September 11th, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to remember not the horrors of the day, but instead how you felt about your fellow Americans in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Remember how that which divided us became so small compared to that which brought us together. Remember the solidarity, the brotherhood, and the unselfishness of millions of your fellow Americans as we pulled together for one another. We were all one in those days following the attacks.

Each year on September 11th, I look over at my neighbor or the person in the car behind me and I think, “Whatever that person has going on today, whatever her troubles, she’s my compatriot and she deserves my respect and my support.” Thinking that way suddenly softens my entire perspective. It rekindles the compassion I felt so strongly back in 2001.

Our humanity can be both beautiful and horrifying, but it is what it is, and it’s in all of us. Because of that, we should give our brothers and sisters (spiritual, physical, social, or political) the benefit of our human best. Wouldn’t you want the same from them? Imagine then, that each September 11 from this day forward will be a day where you and your fellow Americans take a few minutes out of your day to appreciate one another and the remember the days when we all rallied. When we came together as we experienced both ends of the spectrum of humanity. It was beautiful.