The day with no name
Please try to control your excitement, but today's post begins with me completely naked.
So there I was, completely naked, just finishing the last bit of shaving off my Labor Day Weekend facial growth, when I hear a shrill beep that could only mean one thing: a fire alarm's battery is dying. Dying. And there it goes.
I walked out to the living room (still naked, which has nothing to do with the story, but is fun to note) to put the poor battery out of its misery, and when I turned the fire alarm over like a helpless turtle, I noticed that there was a date stamped on the back. I'm not really sure what the significance of this date is. Maybe it's when the alarm was inspected? Hopefully it's not the expiration date of the fire alarm. But in any case, there it was: 2001SEP11
I wondered (naked) if there will ever be a time when just seeing or hearing that date doesn't immediately bring up the memories of the day, about how much our country's existence is Before and After that random Tuesday, when I was late to work and Ben Folds was supposed to play at the 9:30. I thought about how it's inevitable that the fact that we refer to the day as "September 11th" or "Nine-eleven" will one day define us as Old People, since people who were born after it will surely call it "Freedom Day" or "Never Criticize a Republican President Day" or "Ronald Reagan How Dare You Suggest We Don't Name the Day After Him The Poor Man Is Dead For God's Sake Day". And I thought about the people with birthdays on September 11th, especially the ones born after 2001, and how sick they'll be of older people reacting with shock when they hear their birthday, because there will probably never be a time when just seeing or hearing that date doesn't immediately bring up memories of the day.
And then I finished up the shaving, and put on some clothes (all good things must come to an end), because all alarms eventually turn off and life goes on. You heard it here first.
7 comments:
I had a similar experience recently. I was digging through some old paperwork and came across something from my first job out of college. It listed my start date as September 11 (though it was 1995, not 2001).
I wasn't naked at the time though.
Probably wise that you weren't. Nakedness and paper cuts are less than ideal companions.
I was going to say something about horses with no names, but I think I'll pass on that.
I've been chatting with a client about setting up a meeting next Monday, and I consciously try to not sound affected by the mere mention of the day. I wonder if they feel strange knowing that I'm American.
What I want to know is... when will it be made into a proper national holiday.
I don't think it will be made into a national holiday, and personally I'm not sure it should be. Our national holidays usually honor "good" events rather than tragedies. Memorial Day celebrates victory in WWII; however there isn't a national holiday on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Veteran's Day is really Armistice Day, celebrating the victory in WWI. The MLK holiday occurs on his birthday (roughly), not on the anniversary of the day he was shot. Maybe we'll have a national holiday if/once the war on terror finally ends, but creating one for 9/11 would set a new precedent.
I don't see it as a national *holiday* necessarily...I just think that it will, somewhere along the way, get a *name*. In some ways, just calling it by the date is the most fitting way of describing it, but as we get further from the date, and as more people are born who don't remember the day, I think it's inevitable that there will be a different way to refer to it than just "September 11th".
There's already a name for Sept 11th: Patriot Day. It just hasn't really caught on yet. See for yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Day For what it's worth, my at-a-glance calendar tells me next Monday is in fact "Patriot Day" (US).
Huh, it's on my calendar too. That's kind of a lame name though.
I wonder if there's a Raven Day. ;)
(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
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