Tomorrow Is My Cousins' Birthday

Oh, and it's a big-deal day for the rest of America too. I wanted to point out, though, that about 1 in every 365 people you meet will have a birthday on September 11th. These people feel a little lost on their birthday. My cousin -the child of an immigrant- is ashamed of his birthday now. He's embarrassed.

So I'm writing today to say that tomorrow I will remember him. I will send love and cake his way (he lives 2 doors down) as he steps into Teenhood. Yes, tomorrow my cousin turns 13.
If he were Jewish, he would get a rite of manhood. He's Catholic, and he got his rite of manhood when he was 10. The day he learned to shut up about his special day.

We all experience loss, it's part of life. Fortunately, his loss is temporary. After all; how many people remember the date of "The day that will live in infamy"? I think it was December 6th. But I'm not sure. Pearl Harbor happened before I was born. The history books say that a bunch of planes bombed a military base, ships sank, people were traumatized, and people died. The history books say America changed that day. I don't know how America was before then.

My Grandma can tell me more about growing up during the Depression than she can about Pearl Harbor and the war that followed.
I guess my point is that History remembers war, but People remember life. It's our own little slice of it that touches us most deeply.

I remember the planes and the horror and the fear for my child. And I also remember that tomorrow 10 Million Americans will have a birthday. One of them is my cousin.