Wounds That Might Not Heal

The sad reality of life is that you have to witness or suffer loss before you can truly appreciate what you have. I wrote in my last post about 'reality' and the pitfalls of ignoring it but I suppose when it's sad and negative it's often very tempting to turn a blind eye to it. The inspiration for today's post (even though it's a bit crass to be inspired by this) is the fact that the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is in a few days time. There have been lots of programmes on the TV this week and the newspapers have been packed with pictures and stories which are as harrowing as they are important. I've read a few of the stories of survivors, people that lost family and friends in the attacks and of course the rescue personnel and each of them pulled at my heart strings. Some of the pictures that have been brought back into the media is recent weeks speak a thousand words and then some more - still images that will be burned into the memories of victims and onlookers alike. If there is one thing that I've learned in the past week from all of the coverage of the anniversary is that the wounds from 9/11 will take many year to heal.

I can still remember when it happened. I just came home from school and I remember my Mum watching the TV in my old house and looking bemused. She phoned my Dad to see if he knew what was happening - everyone did. There are only a few moments from my childhood that I remember as vividly as that afternoon as I sat there, unable to comprehend the human tragedy that was unfolding before my young eyes. The fact that it is engrained in my memory, a little boy watching all the way from Scotland, makes it hard for me to come to terms with the affect that it's had on the people that were affected directly. Imagine being in the streets of New York on that tragic day or watching from the safety of your home outside of the city in the knowledge that your spouse, brother, sister, parents were in one of the towers. The pain must have been immense for those who did not know if their loved ones were safe and unbearable for those who got the bad news - 9/11 has damaged so many people, so many lives that should not have been tampered with by evil.

Every story is unique, every picture wipes away another layer of dust, which after 10 years has still to settle properly, to reveal yet more painful truths about that day in September 2001. It is said that time is a healer but I fear for those people that have to live with their losses for the rest of their lives, enduring sleepless nights, forgetting and then remembering in an instant about lost loved ones. These wounds will take years to heal and even when they eventually do the scars will serve as a constant reminder of the day that shook the whole world.

Thanks for reading,

Martin