The Wreckage Remains

It’s been 20 years.

As is the case for so many, it’s still seared in my brain. Others seem to have forgotten or at least left it behind.

Being that it’s been 20 years, many young adults today hadn’t even been born yet in 2001 or were too young at the time to have had it scorched into their psyches.

What is the legacy of September 11th?

Volumes have been written and will continue to be written which ponder this question. It’s complicated to say the least.

But clearly what the legacy is NOT is one of a unified, harmonious and tolerant country.

We are a long way from 9/12 when what we shared in common transcended partisan politics and was bigger than the distractions which have fractured a people and which continue to tear us apart.

A lot has happened in this world since 2001 and much of it has resulted in an ugly polarized world, which is sorely lacking in respect for human dignity.

We are a fractured people, torn apart by conflicting ideologies and we are seemingly often times more apt to abandon relationships in the name of like-mindedness than to simply agree to disagree like normal people used to be able to do.

We surround ourselves with those who think just like us making our existence so much less interesting than it could and should be. And we drink from the well of confirmation bias, getting our daily dose of poison from our favorite media cheerleaders who do their best to keep us all as polarized as possible while sowing dissension and hatred for those with whom we disagree.

It’s a sickness that seems to have infected so many and in the grand scheme of things, in my mind it’s a sickness that is much deadlier than something like Covid, as it seems to be fueling our national demise.

Those who would like nothing better than to see the USA as we know it cease to exist must be thrilled watching us entrench ourselves in our respective ideological camps, divided over things like vaccines and masks and climate change and social justice and infrastructure and inflation and immigration and equity and equality and taxing and spending and race theory and gender theory and whatever other issues we’ve decided are more important than actual people and relationships.

This is something that has been building up over time and I’m sure it will continue to build but it feels like we’re reaching the boiling point and I think it’s astonishing, disheartening and disgusting.

So on this September 11th, I’m making a personal commitment to back away from all of it which is difficult to do but which is made much easier by living in amazing Montana, a long way from the world. 

I’m doing my best to limit my media consumption, to abstain from wasting my personal time on toxic social media and to spend much more time working to maintain the relationships I hold dear, regardless of political ideologies. I’m focusing on faith, family and relationships….the rest be damned.

What’s happening “out there” has little to do with what happens “in here”. The “in here” is my day to day. My family, my friends, my business, my passions…my world and my relationship with the author of my being. These are the things that matter to me!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I try to steer clear of political/cultural discussion which is not a result of the blissful ignorance that comes as a result of checking out from the world out there but which is instead a conscious effort to reject the temptation to define who I am by expressing my opinions on the matters at hand.

My opinions don’t matter to anyone other than me and I would much rather have a diversity of relationships than to alienate one side or the other because I happen to think one way or another about something that really has very little effect on any of our lives. 

On this day I’ll proclaim that if you’re “in here” your ideological/political/cultural stripes don’t mean much of anything to me. If you’re “in here”, I am more interested in who you are and how you connect with me than I am about any of those things. And I’ll even go on to say that if you’re “in here” then we’re “in here” together and I would bet that if we wanted to we might even have a discussion with differing opinions about things happening “out there” and live to tell about it. Or at least that’s the way it should be.

So save your vitriol and disdain for what’s “out there” and don’t waste much time on it. It’s in here that matters and I for one can’t help but feel anything other than tremendously blessed to be here.

There is a day that looms large for every dog owner. It makes no difference whether a puppy or a middle-aged or senior rescue. Dogs of all sorts capture our hearts and hold them captive for an unknown number of days determined by destiny. We enter into a contract on the day we allow a dog to claim us as their human, a contract which stipulates that on the human side we will commit to caring for them and meeting all of their needs while on the dog side the commitment is much deeper.

People have been known to breech the contract if for some reason it becomes an inconvenience. Not so with dogs. The dog’s commitment is one of unconditional love and absolute devotion for all of the days we’re together no matter what.

Dogs exemplify what is good and what is right and they are everything humans wish they could be but of which they so often fall short. Dogs are there by our sides, through the peaks and the valleys with nothing but love for us. It has been said that dogs are just a part of our lives but to them we are their whole life. Truer words could not be spoken.

And then comes the dreaded day. The day we have to say goodbye.

Today was that day.

Today we said goodbye to our beloved Jake after 12 joyous years. Today we are overwhelmed by sadness but at the same time feeling incredibly blessed to have had him in our lives through these years which have brought so much drastic and transformational change in the best way possible.

Jake’s arrival was a bright and cleansing light in a time of darkness.

Jake spent the first years of his life watching a plan materialize. A plan to leave the life we knew in Michigan to chase a dream in Montana.

Jake saw the dream come to fruition and spent the last nine years as an integral part of the re-making of our lives. New city, new state, new jobs, new careers, new business ventures, a middle-schooler making his way through the challenges of a major move and of adolescence and now navigating his way at the University of Montana. And of course, endless rivers to float and places to wander all with the backdrop of amazing Montana.

It’s been a pivotal 12 years, 12 years we wouldn’t trade for the world.

Many of you who frequent the shop likely met him here and he was always a favorite subject of mine for photographs and social media posts. He was a kind and gentle soul and a better dog we could not have had.

This is a day of sadness for us but a day of freedom for you as you are released from the shackles of arthritis and cancer and years to run the hills and the trails and swim the rivers free from pain.

Rest easy Jake. You will live in our hearts until our paths cross again.

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