September Eleventh

Remember the past, but focus on a better future.

Hiya, Friends!  I know this is a solemn day.  I know that way before I was born, something very bad happened on this day.  I know that to most of you, Big People, it seems like an awful yesterday, and I can't imagine what kinds of things you thought and felt or even saw and heard on September Eleventh.  I can't even go there, because it's too scary.

When I talk to a lot of you, I hear that the world is a very different place than it was Before September Eleventh, but it really isn't all that different, either.  Seems crazy when I say it like that, but I betchya if ya think about it, you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about.

Friends, I hope my people never hafta see another day like September Eleventh.  No offense, but I hope we learned from your mistakes.  See, saying that "the world is a very different place Since" can be a sad thing, because if you were around on September Eleventh, 2001, no matter how old you were when it happened, you lost a little bit of your innocence.  The world lost some of its innocence.  But Friends, it doesn't have to be all sad.  We can all be wiser than we were Before.  I wasn't here yet, so I don't know what you Big People were up to, but maybe we can all learn to Count to Ten, maybe learn to talk TO people from different places, instead of AT them.  That goes for EVERYBODY on all the different sides.  We all should talk together more, and find out just how much we really have in common, even if we all speak differently or dress differently, or eat different food.

That's why it's with a little trepidation that from my study of the world After, I also see it isn't that much different.  We still squabble over stuff.  Our leaders still can't find a way to get along.  Sometimes, it feels like people who are "leaders" are more interested in having power than they are in leading.  I hope that when it's my people's turn, that we've got leaders who want to lead, rather than who just want to be powerful.  Power for the right reasons is what I'm getting at, Friends.

Thing is, I think it wouldn't hafta take us all that long to make the world Very Different In A Good Way from the Way It Was Before, if we could all just drop our pretense and stop our collective chest-beating, and TALK.  I've met people from a lot of different places around the world, some of them from places where if we pull back and look on a map at where those people come from, we say 'Ooooooooh.'  But the people themselves are really nice!

I think what I'm saying is I wish we could all stop being afraid of our differences, Friends, because once we did that, there'd be one less reason for a global Dislike Button.  Different doesn't hafta be better or worse.  It's just different!  I love Different!

That's my thoughts on the Big September Eleventh.  But September Eleventh was also a big day in my own history, Friends.  I'm talking about September Eleventh, 2011.  Ten years after the day.  Up until then, the only places I'd seen were the inside of Mommy's hospital room, the hallway down to the nursery, and the actual nursery.  I couldn't imagine that there was any more to the world than that.

And then, on September Eleventh, I woke up, just like I had for the last two days.  I got my bath.  I put on some clothes and my hat.  But Mommy was wearing different clothes from what she'd been wearing, and I couldn't help but notice a bright red chair-looking thing in my hospital room.  Before I knew it, I was sitting all buckled in to that bright red chair-looking thing.  I rode in an elevator, and felt my first outside breeze!  It was kind of a cloudy day, I remember.  Cool, and wanting to rain.  I was used to my warm hospital room, but I liked the new air!

My bright red chair-looking thing got snapped into its place in a silver Jeep, and next thing I knew, I was driving through Wellsville.  Mommy wanted to see where my doctor's office was, because I'd be going to visit him soon.  So we drove down Main Street, then onto the 4-lane, and all the way to my house in the middle of the Bing.  I thought that was plenty big of an adventure for such a little me, but there was MORE headed my way!  We pulled up to a big yellow house, and I could hear a dog barking.  I'd heard that dog a lot before, but it sounded different this day.  When I got inside the house, and all unwrapped from my bright red chair looking thing, I saw the friendliest, furriest face I'd ever seen in my life.  Such big teeth!

That was the first time I really met my best friend Rozzie.  The first day I came Home.  It's funny to think about now, how new everything and everybody was.  So while part of me is sad for what happened on the big September the Eleventh, my first September Eleventh was a Very Good Day!

This is what I think I'm going to do, Friends, and I hope you'll join me.  I'm going to remember the past, but I'm going to focus on a better future.  "Be the change you wanna see in the world" isn't just something people wear on badges and patches and ride around on bumper stickers, Friends.  It's a real thing.

So on this September Eleventh and Always, I. Love. All. Of. You.  Always, Friends!

Muah!