Today should not be about divisiveness. It should not use Patriot Day as an excuse to push a personal set of beliefs or an agenda. It should not be an “I told you so” or a list of why you are right and everyone else is wrong. It should not be about terror and insecurity. It should not be about violence, about war, or about destruction. It should not draw the painful nostalgia of remembering “a simpler time.” It should not mock a stereotype or perpetuate petty one-upping.
Today should be about unity. It should be about love and hope and the future. It should remember those hundreds of people that ran towards and even into the World Trade Center after it was hit to help, and about those hundreds upon thousands that cried and prayed and opened their arms for strangers. It should be about honoring those that knew their own lives to be lost, but kept struggling in the hopes of being able to save just one more person. It should be about those that spent their last moments calling to reassure their loved ones, to express love. It should be an opportunity to call those people that you may have overlooked lately – it happens, we all get busy.
Today should be about thinking of whatever you call that thing you believe in: Nature, Science, Energy, God. It should be about hope for the future. It should be appreciations of how far we’ve come. It should be about determination that our future path will continue to improve, that the sun will come out, even if the clouds currently fill your sky.
Never forget. But never let hatred in your heart for those that oppose you outweigh love for the many more beautiful, bittersweet things in this world.
A Substitute Sun 