Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Where were you? Better question...what have I done?

Today is a day many ask "Where were you?"

Modern history is filled with "Where were you?" days, each generation has its own:
Where were you when Kennedy was shot?
Where were you when Martin Luther King Jr was killed?
Where were you when man walked on the moon or John Lennon died or Belushi or Farley or when this or when that or when he or when she?
Where were you when you heard the news? The news that planes crashed, that buildings fell, that people died?
Did you know them?
Was anyone you knew there?
Were YOU there?
Were you stranded in an airport? Could you reach your family?
Not 'Did you cry?' but 'How long did you cry?'
"Never Forget" is posted and shared and sang, and we probably never will, or won't for a long time, but I ask myself a different question, not out of disrespect or callousness, but out of the desire to be better.
To be a better me.
I ask "What have I done?"
What have I done to be a better person? A better neighbor? A better husband?  A better father?
In the blink of an eye I can be gone due to circumstances beyond my control and or circumstances only I control, and when that time comes, will I wish people will forget or never forget?
Will they forget the times I offended them, or forgot them, or injured them? Or will they never forget the times I was kind, considerate, or unselfish?
So while today marks a day of horrific death and tragedy, I strive to make today a day I do some good, not just for me but for those around me.
I will try to Never Forget to be a good person. A better person than I was yesterday.
If we can't do that, then what good is it to remember anything at all?