Middles (19)—Calendars and Memory

One year ago on Round and Square (11 September 2011)—Middles: Commemoration
Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Middles"

[a] Memory

Just a few words today. It is not a time for long musings. I'll leave that to others. All I wish to point out is something that I notice every time we reach an especially poignant anniversary. Today is Tuesday, you see, and somehow that matters to me as I think back to September 11, 2001. Since I spend a great deal of time studying calendars and almanacs, I tend to notice little peculiarities that may or may not strike others as relevant...so maybe it is just me. Maybe. I really can't recall anyone else bringing up this detail, but I notice it every five or six years after the anniversary of a powerful event. 

It doesn't change the larger commemoration, to be sure, but it has seared itself into my memory of that morning eleven years ago. You see, September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday that many of us will never forget. Somehow—and I do not know why this matters to me...but it does—the commemorations when everything down to the day of the week are "the same" have particular resonance for me. 2006 and 2012 follow this pattern, and somehow...again...it feels closer to the awful spectacle of that day in 2001. I suspect that it is something that matters only to people who are peculiarly aware of the calendar. 

What I am trying to say here is that it is not trivial, even if it might seem so to many. It is tied to memory in ways that I feel, but cannot quite tease out for explanation.

It doesn't change anything, but somehow the little weekday patterns make it even more vivid. I always notice, and that awful day is repeated in that extra dimension...today.