life is just an ordinary, extraordinary day...

This morning I was doing my usual thing, you know, getting up and all, and I poked my contacts in and reached for the remote to flip on the TV and I was barely awake when I saw an announcer reading a list of names. And I was all "what's that?" and then I realized. It's 9/11. How could I forget? how do we get SO busy like that?

And for SOME reason, as they were reading the names I was riveted. I listened to every.single.name. because all of a sudden it seemed so personal. Like they weren't just NAMES. They were people. I know this seems obvious, and I am having a 7 yr delayed response here, but here it is nonetheless. Among all the STUPID news coverage lately (and if I'm saying it's stupid, then it's bad) here is this tribute to remind us what's important.

And that's the whole thing. How valuable everyone is. Even the hippies. How we obsess about our differences and prey on each other's soft spots. How we constantly judge each other, ya know? How we get SO busy that we forget how good we have it. how one last smile from a stranger may be your last smile, so notice it. And maybe if we just start small, like remembering the impact we have on each other and just once reminding yourself to connect with a stranger. just once is a good start. to remember that your face could be the last they see...so make it a good one.

Nothing earth shattering here. I'm not saying drop everything and smell the roses. I'm not saying to hug the ones you love, cuz that's easy, hugging the ones you LOVE. I'm just saying that as they read those names all I could think was that if I had lost someone in 9/11, that if that someone was on their way to the twin towers and this was their last moment, I would have hoped that someone on their way to work would have smiled, or done something like hold the door for them, or let them go first. Maybe its those smallest gestures, not the big ones that keep us connected.

And in a time like now, when opinions and "rightness" have run amok, we can just remember to stay small and kind. To not ONLY offer up our best parts to strangers, but to receive the best parts of others we are offered every single day, but just don't notice or even see as valuable.

I know. I know, This kind of stuff from me is usually buried in a hermetically sealed cryogenic bunker under Popeye's chicken. But there you go. I'll be back at it tomorrow. Maybe I'll give a hippie a break on my next Whole Foods trip, which will be soon because I ate all my, erm, vitamins.