I know that tomorrow there will be many posts on US blogs around the internet about September 11th, 2001 - what we've come to simply call "9/11" and most everyone who was here knows what that means, even though this is the 9th "9/11" since that time. I am absolutely not belittling the impact that had on the people living in the United States nor the families and friends and co-workers impacted by the event. Absolutely not. It was huge. My partner's brother and his wife were both pilots for United at that time; both of them in the air at that time. He was doing transcontinental flights and his home-base airport (whatever they call that) was the one where the planes were identified as having left from. Hours later we learned that his wife was doing west coast flights and was grounded and silenced for several hours. She was grounded without knowing why - only that something was very wrong. I don't remember how long it was before we heard from him, who was silenced in another country, waiting, wondering. We were lucky, I know; some people were not.
So - my contribution to the 9/11/01 blog posts is to look at who we as a nation really are. We are members of the whole planet. We have residents from all over the globe and what we do impacts people all over the planet, as we are impacted by what others do. We are not isolated. There are borders and yet.... We all breathe the same air and, yes, some places it is dirtier or cleaner or bluer or thinner than others. But this is one planet and we share it.
For now, just for today if you must, try to feel that connection, that shared space. And create from it.
Watch this fun, inspiring, video. Pick one of the places where Matt goes. Write a story about being there; about meeting the people; about dancing in the street/building/temple/arena; about what happens next. Or, because 9/11/01 was an important day in changing how we think about ourselves in the world, feel free to write about that, too. But I would like to challenge you to write about being somewhere else, dancing, with strangers.
