wal66
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So I am bored at work today and as usual I go to Hulu.com to watch some videos. Generally I go straight for the regular shows that air nightly that I miss due to other interest. Today though for some reason I decided to expand and see what else Hulu had to offer. I come across some documenteries and since these are a passion of mine I had to explore. There was one I had never seen before. It was called 7 Days in September. It turned out to be about 9/11 and even though I have watched practically everything ever done on that subject I had never seen this one. Now the film wasn't really any better than any of the others but as I am watching it I can't help but get overwhelmed with emotions. I mean at one point the lump in my throat had turned to complete uncontrollable tears. Not because I was seeing something that I hadn't seen hundreds of times before but because no matter how many times you see it you can't help but feel so connected to that time in history. It's not like I personally knew any of those who lost their lives or have any real connection to New York
Through to course of this film and many others that are out there the one resounding theme you see over and over again is how people from all walks of life were as one even if for a very brief moment. Black, white, christian, non christrian, straight, gay it didn't matter we as a whole were one and with one common emotion, absolute disbelief.
Obviously this oneness didn't last long and sooner than one might hope we returned to complete individualality. Certainly lives were changed forever after the events of that day and sadly most were probably changed for the worse in one way or the other.
It got me to thinking though, other than huge tragic events do we as a nation ever really become one on anything even for more than a minute in time? It certainly doesn't happen over say the US hockey team beating the Russians in hockey and going on to win the gold medal. It doesn't happen when a musical icon of actor/actress dies. Even the most shocking of criminal trial verdicts rarely sees more than just a majority of common thoughts. Tragedies though have a way of being the one event in life that has a common thread in us as a people. The shooting of John F Kennedy, the space shuttle Challenger, 9/11. These are three events I can recall where in ever reporting of the events it seemed there was a unity in the sadness.
What does that say about us as a society? We as a whole can't find joy in one common event but we can relate to epic levels of sorrow?
Maybe I am missing something, maybe there has been a time in our history where something good happened and as a whole we shared in it. Can anyone ever recall such an event that had a unified , even for a moment, emotion of joy like the devistational events that I mentioned brought a collective pain?
Through to course of this film and many others that are out there the one resounding theme you see over and over again is how people from all walks of life were as one even if for a very brief moment. Black, white, christian, non christrian, straight, gay it didn't matter we as a whole were one and with one common emotion, absolute disbelief.
Obviously this oneness didn't last long and sooner than one might hope we returned to complete individualality. Certainly lives were changed forever after the events of that day and sadly most were probably changed for the worse in one way or the other.
It got me to thinking though, other than huge tragic events do we as a nation ever really become one on anything even for more than a minute in time? It certainly doesn't happen over say the US hockey team beating the Russians in hockey and going on to win the gold medal. It doesn't happen when a musical icon of actor/actress dies. Even the most shocking of criminal trial verdicts rarely sees more than just a majority of common thoughts. Tragedies though have a way of being the one event in life that has a common thread in us as a people. The shooting of John F Kennedy, the space shuttle Challenger, 9/11. These are three events I can recall where in ever reporting of the events it seemed there was a unity in the sadness.
What does that say about us as a society? We as a whole can't find joy in one common event but we can relate to epic levels of sorrow?
Maybe I am missing something, maybe there has been a time in our history where something good happened and as a whole we shared in it. Can anyone ever recall such an event that had a unified , even for a moment, emotion of joy like the devistational events that I mentioned brought a collective pain?
