Most days are entirely forgettable. We work, we sleep, we eat, and we play. We do the things that are part of our lives, important for the moment, but hardly memorable.

Other days hold special memories for us and our families. Births and deaths and other special events are recorded in our minds while going unnoticed by the rest of the world.

And then there are other days, days that are universally memorable. Days that you can replay in your mind like a flawless DVR. If you are old enough you can still “see” the events of the day JFK was assassinated and man’s first steps on the moon.

Today is one of those days. Three years ago I wrote:

I was living in South Carolina at the time in a town between Columbia and Charleston. I was rooming with an older couple, helping them out in exchange for room and board. The night before I had worked the closing shift at Sears and that morning I was sleeping in. I remember laying in bed, sort of hovering between sleep and waking when Hugh knocked on my door. “You need to come see this,” I remember him saying. In fact his first couple of exchanges are the only exact quotes I can remember from that day and those that followed. I lay in bed a while longer, not really wanting to get up yet, and thinking that Hugh was just engaging in his usual habit of pointing out things he thought I would be interested in.

I knew something different was happening when he knocked on my door again. Typically he would knock or say something once, and if I didn’t show any interest he’d leave it alone. Not that morning, “Somethings happened at one of the Twin Towers.” He hadn’t seen very much yet himself. Reluctantly I got up and made my way to the living room. News was just begining to filter in and Hugh was flipping channels trying to find out what exactly was going on. My first reaction was that some tragic accident had occurred. An act of terrorism hadn’t entered my mind. We watched those early reports together. I can still recall how stunned, numb, and disbelieving I was when the second plane was seen heading for the other tower. That is the visual image which is clearest in my mind.

Some days are memorable because they change our world, while other days are memorable because they change our world. September 11th, 2001 changed our world, our lives, and our future.