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16 years. Has it really been that long? I must have missed the moment when ... no, it was here, I just didn't do the math. That's right. Three years ago was when more than half of my life had lived in a post-9/11 world. It gets harder and harder to remember the first half. But everything since then has been learning, learning, learning: who we are, what is war, what courage is, where hatred lies, where compassion is found, whom terror touches. And still, there is much left to learn: who we were, what we will become, where we will go, how is the hope, why is the world, and when is the peace.

Three years ago ...

Tech Green, Georgia Institute of Technology, September 11, 2014 · Atlanta, GA, United States

"Today is, as always, a heavy day. Sometimes, I wish I could turn off empathic emotions so I wouldn't be so distracted by the stories of other people's lives. In fact, I know I can, like a switch, and be in a sociopathic, scorched-earth mode of concentration and personal conquest. But I don't, because I'm worried that when I go to turn the switch back on, it might not work again. So, the heartache must continue, it must go on, lest you or I forget what it means. Lest we forget, but we shall not; no, we shall never."