Understanding the Magnitude of Victims
At last count there are over six thousand people missing and presumed dead from the attacks on September 11th. I have been watching the coverage from a distance. I live thousands of miles from New York City. A city I have long admired yet never visited. I love architecture and have always wanted to look out over NYC from the top of the WTC. I guess that will never happen. (At least not as it was.) But more than that I will never meet any of the people that are gone. Since the day it happened I have been trying to come up with a way to understand the magnitude of this disaster. I have found a way to put some perspective on the number of victims.
I don't meet too many people at work. My circle of friends is small but close. So it is a rare occation when I meet someone new on more that a superficial level. One day I happen to meet someone. A person that I sit down with and get to know. I learn about their life. Their family. Their job. Someone that I can call a friend.
Now that doesn't happen to me every day. But let's say it does. That tomorrow I meet another someone new. And the next day, and the next. In a week I have met seven new friends. In a month I've met thirty. In a year I've met three hundred and sixty five people that bring something into my life. This continues to happen every day. Two years and nine months pass and I have met one thousand new friends.
That is a lot of people. But to meet over six thousand people one day at a time it takes about sixteen and a half years. Think about that a little bit. Sixteen years. It will be 2017 before six thousand days have passed. What memories do you have over the last sixteen years? You can't remember every day, but just the ones you do remember are special. Every day is special. Every one of those victims were special. Try to think about them a little each day for the next sixteen years.