I am not watching any coverage today on TV

[Grammy23]

33. I add to that 1/6/2021.

Our lives are littered with things that hurt us and are tragedies. Most are not on the scale of 9/11 but they hurt and cause us to suffer. Some of us suffered personally on 9/11 while others grieved in a slightly different way. It was a loss of innocence to see our country attacked in that way and coupled with the loss of life compounded the betrayal.

But from a psychological standpoint, I do not appreciate being manipulated to relive that day. The promos have been on all week with clips from the event being shown on various programs. To avoid it 100% would mean not watching any of the news channels, including local news. So even though I have no intention of watching any of the special programming today, it has been on already throughout this week.

From a mental health perspective, I don’t think reliving the day is particularly good for those who actually lost loved ones that day or the rest of us who had a different kind of loss. Grief and loss are part of the human experience. We learn to incorporate the experience into our lives but move on. There will be more losses to endure, some big, others less impactful. So visiting the graves on special days seems reasonable if we lost a loved one that day. Pausing for a moment of silence to remember the losses for the rest of us seems respectful but not maudlin. But to rewatch the planes hit the towers and burn to the ground seems far too much. Leave that for the history books because that is what it is. Part of our history. We must move on to get out of grief and loss toward a more normal life. I do not want to remain stuck in that terrible, sad place that we were in 20 years ago.