Remembering 9-11: Our Children Will Also Live In Interesting Times

Remembering 9-11: I found this video very moving because it focused on the people and not the destruction.

h/t Victory Girls

Remembering 9-11

Take ten minutes to reflect on Sep-11-2001, a watershed event for the US in the 21^st century that I have come to believe is a harbinger and not an outlier. Last year I hoped that “our children can live in less interesting times.” It’s clear to me now that it will not be possible for them or our grandchildren to do so.

9-11 Related Posts

• Take a Moment to Recall 8 Years Ago
  It’s hard to remember a state of complete confusion. I had dropped my boys off at school and was listening to one of least funny morning comedy routines that I had heard in a while. Something about the airport but I couldn’t make any sense of it. We were scheduled to fly to St. Louis tomorrow to attend a high school re-union. I called my wife and said “I think something has happened, I am not sure if we will be able to fly out of SFO tomorrow.”
• Lesser Sons of Greater Fathers
  There was a mindfulness in Silicon Valley after 9/11 and the dotcom crash that I miss. I don’t miss the terrible turmoil and the anxiety and the 25% contraction in employment, but I do miss the mindfulness.
  
• Take a Moment to Recall 9 Years Ago
  I am old enough to remember what I was doing when I learned that John Kennedy had been assassinated. I was in kindergarten playing at a friend’s house when his Mother sent me home. My Mother accused me of misbehaving until I convinced her to turn on the television with my wild story of an assassination. 
  I suppose I will always remember the morning of September 11, 2001 as well.
  
• Take a Moment to Recall 9 Years Ago, Part 2
  “Remember. But move forward, too. Light a candle, yes. But also drive a rivet.”
  James Lileks
• Remembering What Happened
  At first we didn’t know what to call it, so we called it what happened. “Do you believe what happened?” “They think he died in what happened.” It was weeks before we called it 9/11. Sometimes tragedy takes time to find a name.
  Peggy Noonan
• “The Planes All Came Down” by James Lileks.

I will return to regular topics of bootstrapping, innovation, new product introduction shortly, but I don’t think it hurts to pop up out of the Silicon Valley tech bubble  to reflect on larger issues a few times a year.

“I not only bow to the inevitable, I am fortified by it.”
Thornton Wilder