I have heard talks of late of the dangers in telling the individual story.

One person’s account of what happened, of how they felt, of who their family was, and their life experiences.

There have been opinions, of which I won’t say their names or promote their platforms here, of the overall place narrative.

In other words, focusing on location, the time, the place, and pulling out to look at the huge forest of issue rather than just that one tree.  That one little tree, that longs to tell the story.

It has been 17 years since September 11th.  Today is a Tuesday, the same day of the week 17 years ago.

Year after year there was footage of the buildings and the planes, fire, debris, the memorials, a reading of names.

However, the individual stories of the lives lost are still coming to light.  Today I have been reading individual accounts of those who lost family members, of those who changed flights, of those who were responsible for shooting down planes.  So many voices lending more to the narrative.

I remember this great quote a rabbi said at the memorial so many years ago. Back when we didn’t have the numbers yet and thought it was 6,000 lives or more lost.  He said it was like losing 1 person 6,000 times.

I never forgot that line and it is so true. The individual story, the one little life that to  family and friends, mean everything.

The buildings to me mean nothing, and should mean nothing.  It is the lives within, the lives that ran in to save those lives, the families, the friends, those people on the planes, all of their stories, one by one by one.  I wish to hear them all.

The individual voice, in these troubled times, is more important than ever.

The “Survivor Tree” and I making our proper introductions.