Twenty One Years

I'm sure we've all heard something along the lines of "some people are just born extraordinary." And you know, in some cases, I can't discount this to be true.?

But with all due respect, I must explain - people are not born extraordinary.?

Extraordinary people are carved, molded, bruised from experience, and created. They bloom. Blossom. Rise from ashes. Whichever cliché you want to go with; but they are not born.?

What the world met 21 years ago today, was a body billions strong of ordinary people who became extraordinary. No one told a single victim of September 11, 2001 on the day they were born that one day, they would save a life or die trying. No one told the first responders on the day they were born that one day, their whole life would be defined by an ordinary early morning in New York. No one told the infants who would later take an oath that one day, you will be the reason we can sleep at night, or the reason we won't; that one day, your whole life will change because the world changed, and created you in a way that brought you to life, when here you thought you'd been living this whole time.?

No. No one got that memo the day they were born. They didn't know.?

20 years of war has taken its toll. What it hasn't taken, is the level of extraordinary this country breeds. No, we are not perfect. Yes, there is now often argument to the statement that we are "the greatest country in the world." But what this truly boils down to is this…

On September 11, 2001, the United States of America was attacked. And on September 11, 2001, in the United States of America, ordinary people became extraordinary. And 21 years later, this hasn't changed. So, what has??

We are all aware of how many lives were lost that day. What we fail to realize however, is how many lives were born - how many lives decided, on that day and in the months following, to do more.?

Be more.?

Live?more.?

BREATHE more.?

People can chirp the "life is short, live it!" bullshit until they're blue in the face, but it doesn't make a damn bit of difference until life gives you the gut punch you need to realize it's true.?

It is in those moments, that ordinary becomes extraordinary. It is in those moments, that a fire is sparked in the darkest of places, and can tread so carefully, so delicately, until the moment arises when the only thing left to give is a fire.?

America breeds extraordinary.?

America.?

Breeds.?

Extraordinary.?

And we'll burn and we'll bleed and at the end of the day, you’ll still find an unyielding star spangled banner carried by battered but unbroken people who refuse to lay it down.?

So in an often hateful and sadness-ridden world, and on a day where we as a nation are reminded of a level of pain so few can understand, but lived by so many, just remember and know this - extraordinary became the ordinary on September 11, 2001.?

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is America in a nutshell.?

Be present today - in your own life, and in the lives of all who are ordinary in yours.