A Day to Remember

There are many reasons I like working in the Financial District of Boston.  You really have the opportunity to feel part of history and part of each event.  Walking toward my office this morning, I heard the orchestra on the State House steps playing music as part of what the Boston Globe correctly described as a quieter observation of the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S.

This is a day, like the day President Kennedy was assassinated (I was 9, but I remember), that everyone marks where they were and what they were doing.  We were less about texting then and more about using cell phones and email to communicate.  I was catching up on some of that email when my phone rang.  My older sister wanted to know "Where are you?"  I shrugged it off as her over-protectiveness and said, "where do you think I am?! I'm at work."  She knew I traveled a lot out of Logan.  It was her call that alerted me to the tragedies of the day, which began in my city.

I always think of the brilliant client we lost that day and of the young staff member who had arranged the speaking engagement in Los Angeles that put him on that plane that morning.  I think of the other staff member who was visiting our Austin office and began driving home to Boston, wanting to get to loved ones and to some sense of normalcy.

We are eleven years past that horrific day.  We still mourn.  We remember.  We try to make the day about doing good, not dredging up anger.  Even now our agency team is in our kitchen in Boston making sandwiches for the Homeless Veterans shelter.  It's a perfect day for this regular service activity to occur.  It helps us to move forward.