Celebrating the ordinary

     Not many of us who were around at the time will not remember the shock, the confusion, the horror, the stunned reaction to the events of 9/11.  Some have criticized President Bush for the way he sat and continued to read at the day care, but most of us did not know what to do or what to make of it or how to react to the news either.
     Now we mark the day by pausing and remembering the victims, the first responders, and the families of the victims.  We are still suffering the consequences of that attack with two wars in the Middle East that have become longer and more costly than Vietnam.  There is another crisis in the Middle East that is pretty much the same struggle all over again.
     But some of us mark this day by a celebration of the little ordinary things.  The ordinary normal things that are the context of our lives. The silly little things that those who were killed in the attacks will never be able to share again.   The early morning cup of coffee with the newspaper in hand. The comics and the sport page. The sport page filled with young people working hard and trying to become the best they can become.  Celebrating the constant flow of competition.  To watch the birds at the feed, to see the young off to school, to get the "Obligatory picture of the first day of kindergarten" of the grandchild.  To read a few pages in a good book. To watch and listen to the station of one's choice on the early shows.
      Maybe it does not seem like a great show of respect or honor maybe, but it seems to me it is the absolute most appropriate way to honor them. To enjoy, to celebrate, to share the ordinary, normal, routine activities of our daily lives is what they would all have wanted to share.  These are the things that the family miss most. The morning huge, the first kiss, the packing the lunches, the mowing the grass, the going to work, the coming home, the fighting the traffic, that french fries and the coke. The beer at the end of the day. To honor their lives and to remember their deaths by living ours and enjoying the ordinary average routine of life. They were wonderful ordinary people, and in a lot of ways we remember that by pausing and appreciating our own good ordinary life.