The Vanishing of September 11

If you lived it, it’s your forever. But if you didn’t, its unity has vanished.

One of my sons asked me about September 11 a while back. I’d always imagined that would happen, even back then, a full decade before I became a parent, but I did think it would be more dramatic. I’d always assumed the fact that I was in New York City on September 11 would be a central biographical detail of my life, the rest of my life, just like it would be for everybody else who was there at the time; I figured it would come up constantly. It was, after all, surely going to be the most important moment in American history, and it was one I was present for: Imagine being in Oahu during Pearl Harbor, or being in East Berlin when the wall fell, and not having it be a central biographical detail of your life. But it hasn’t turned out that way. So much has happened in the last 23-plus years, people who weren’t around for it have no context for it and the rest of us have been so swept up in all the dramatic changes since that you can’t stop your head from spinning. The world’s constantly on fire, people are terrified of everything, and we’ve gotten so removed from that day that you’ve even had young people — very, very stupid young people, which is the right, even the obligation, of the young — even sympathizing with Osama bin Laden. In 2025, I never get asked about…