Something dawned on me today when I heard that celebrity musicians will be covering "We Are The World" to benefit relief in Haiti. When the original song was performed, I was 4 years old, and I remember singing the song, but I had no idea what it was for. I didn't know that it was meant to raise funds for famine in Africa. I also only vaguely remember the Challenger disaster, because I was only 5. My parents, on the other hand, can tell you exactly where they were, and when they talk about it, still get tears in their eyes.
Where were you when JFK died?
Where were you when you heard that the Challenger exploded?
Where were you when the Towers Fell?
Where were you when you heard about the earthquake in Haiti?
When I talk about the JFK assasination, I only speak with facts. I only know basic information. I don't know what it's like for my president to be killed and not know who to blame.
On the other hand, I can tell you exactly what I felt at the moment when the Twin Towers were attacked, who I called, who I tried to console, and how many times I cried for no reason and too many reasons all at the same time.
Do you realize that the children being born today will have no emotional connection to or rememberance of the World Trade Center? In the world they live in, the Twin Towers never existed. To them, it's just history. This realization gives me a greater appreciation for the Hebrew culture found in the Bible. They didn't have CNN. They didn't have YouTube. They didn't have social media, Newspapers or any other way to preserve the past. They had scribes that would reproduce letters and books BY HAND. The main way they remembered was to tell stories. They told stories over and over and over again, with as much vivid language as they could muster to reproduce the sights, sounds, smells and emotions of their past in the hope that the future generations would remember, learn and pass it on.
When I have children, I hope that I have the courage not just to teach them how to live in the present, but also to teach them about the events that created the world they live in in the hopes that they can take that information and remember, learn and pass it on.
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