Last week at school we were discussing a documentary one of my co-workers had seen about WWII. She mentioned that the film-makers had interviewed several young Japanese citizens on the streets of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The majority of them could not tell the film-maker what had happened on these streets to end the war.
This lead us to ask the question, "Will we all remember 9.11.01?"
Oddly enough, that weekend I happened to find a VHS tape while de-cluttering the basement. It was a 9.11.01 documentary filmed from the point of view of 2 french brothers. They had begun filming the life of a newbie NY Fireman. Their assigned station was 7 blocks from the Twin Towers. They began filming in July, never expecting that they would have a bird's eye view to such a disaster come September. On that fated day, these two young men bravely filmed everything as they followed the firefighters into danger and became separated in the chaos of the morning.
When the tragedy of the terrorist attacks were fresh, most of us tried to shelter our children from the trauma. But, in retrospect, maybe that was wrong.
I don't want them to forget.
In watching the documentary, my 10 year old was full of questions and my introspective 16 year old was mostly silent.
I am ashamed to say that the moment that touched me the most was watching both of my sons cry as the reunited brothers held each other and cried tears of joy at finding each other alive.
It's a brother thing.
Something I hope my boys will always hold dear.
Each other.
