What has happened since 9/11? Twenty-five years have happened.

It doesn’t seem possible. And yet I know it’s true. For me, 9/11 marked the beginning of a several-years-long process that led to the creation of this blog and a life I never had envisioned at the time. On 9/11 itself, the events were profoundly shocking and horrific, and I couldn’t even begin to understand them.

To go back to that day is to go back to a world that seems far more than twenty-five years distant – to another mindset, one with trouble imagining that the things we saw and heard that day were possible in anything but an action/horror movie. Now it all seems highly possible, perhaps even inevitable. But that’s only in retrospect.

I’ve watched many documentary videos recently about 9/11. I’ve watched many in the past, too. The stories are of heartbreaking tragedy and loss, of errors, of tremendous bravery, of inspiring survival, of selfless people helping people, of last loving words, of horror and evil. What does it all mean now to those too young to remember, too young to know a world where 9/11 hadn’t yet happened on a beautiful September day with a surpassingly clear blue sky? As with all history, the time will come when more and more people alive will not remember, and their views will be shaped by later events we cannot quite imagine.

I can’t speak for them. I can only speak for myself, and to a certain extent for my generation. For many of us, it was a watershed experience. Today is a solemn day and a solemn remembrance. RIP.

NOTE: Douglas Murray captures an interesting perspective here:

And here are links to some previous posts of mine about 9/11. I particularly call your attention to this post, which was part of my “change” series, as well as this one.