09/11/2026
Grief is not linear and grief is not a competition. All I can say for sure about grief is that I do not wish it for anyone and that it comes, eventually, for everyone.
I recently spoke to someone about the end of the world. The idea that the world as you see it, the world you trust will continue to spin when you close your eyes and don’t see it, can suddenly end. And without warning. When one world ends, another world begins. A world “with” can become a world “without.”
It is not hyperbole to say the world ended on September 11, 2001. 2,799 people were killed that day and more than 5,000 people have died since from illnesses caused by the toxicity of the destruction, a number that is still rising. 25 years on and the impact is still apparent.
“Never forget” is not really a call to action as it once was because survivors truly never will. But for the many people born since, the people who can’t remember a day they were absent from, look at the history and the consequences and help continue things forward.
