Monday, April 20, 2009
Ten Years Ago Today
I was traveling in Germany with my high school concert choir when I heard the news about the shooting at Columbine.
Though I recall only fragments of the specific details of that day--sitting in the hallway before an assembly at a German high school, performing the Star Spangled Banner, my butchered Satchmo impression during Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies"--that day has stuck in my memory as significant due to something that occurred thousands of miles away and with which I had no direct contact.
Memory is a strange thing. Almost no other specific date from that general time in my life retains the same level of importance. I don't typically sit and think to myself, "I know where I was 10 years ago last Thursday." But I suppose the tragedy at Columbine represented a convergence of factors guaranteed to linger in my mind, and arguably the collective American mindscape. The next such event whose emotional impact I recall as clearly was 9-11.
Why do tragedies remain vivid in our memories while other, happier things fade into the distance? The optimist in me says that it's so we can learn from our mistakes...some sort of cognitive mechanism evolved over time intended to circumvent traumatic events. The pessimist in me, however, seeing how much progress (or how little) in the realm of curtailing gun violence, suggests that thoughts about these events survive because they are ultimately more important to our mental identities. Perhaps we define ourselves, in the end, by tragedy. In either case, it's worth reflecting on the lives lost at Columbine and the students who never got the chance to tell their stories of where they were that fateful day.
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I was traveling in Germany with my high school concert choir when I heard the news about the shooting at Columbine.
Though I recall only fragments of the specific details of that day--sitting in the hallway before an assembly at a German high school, performing the Star Spangled Banner, my butchered Satchmo impression during Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies"--that day has stuck in my memory as significant due to something that occurred thousands of miles away and with which I had no direct contact.
Memory is a strange thing. Almost no other specific date from that general time in my life retains the same level of importance. I don't typically sit and think to myself, "I know where I was 10 years ago last Thursday." But I suppose the tragedy at Columbine represented a convergence of factors guaranteed to linger in my mind, and arguably the collective American mindscape. The next such event whose emotional impact I recall as clearly was 9-11.
Why do tragedies remain vivid in our memories while other, happier things fade into the distance? The optimist in me says that it's so we can learn from our mistakes...some sort of cognitive mechanism evolved over time intended to circumvent traumatic events. The pessimist in me, however, seeing how much progress (or how little) in the realm of curtailing gun violence, suggests that thoughts about these events survive because they are ultimately more important to our mental identities. Perhaps we define ourselves, in the end, by tragedy. In either case, it's worth reflecting on the lives lost at Columbine and the students who never got the chance to tell their stories of where they were that fateful day.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Happy Easter, Zombie Jesus!
If Jesus somehow came back to life today, how many people would assume he was a zombie and blow his brains out?
Also, how many fictional characters can you name who died and then came back to life?
A quick list that I came up with this morning:
-Osiris
-Gandalf
-John Locke (from Lost)
-Harry Potter
-Superman
-Spock
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer
-John Sheridan (from Babylon 5)
A more comprehensive list can be found here.
In the meanwhile, have a happy Passover.
(1) comments
If Jesus somehow came back to life today, how many people would assume he was a zombie and blow his brains out?
Also, how many fictional characters can you name who died and then came back to life?
A quick list that I came up with this morning:
-Osiris
-Gandalf
-John Locke (from Lost)
-Harry Potter
-Superman
-Spock
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer
-John Sheridan (from Babylon 5)
A more comprehensive list can be found here.
In the meanwhile, have a happy Passover.
