World Trade Center Sunrise
I took this photo across the street from Ground Zero earlier this year.

Here’s the last piece I’ll post on September 11 for now.

WTC2, the South Tower of the World Trade Center, collapsed after 56 minutes from fire. The people in that building who perished did have about an hour and some communications access to say goodbye, to communicate to some degree, though nowhere near as much communications capacity as today. Some were able to say goodbye, and that’s the basis of this exercise.

For an hour today, I ask you to do something different. Get away from the daily distractions if you can, if possible, and write out what you would say if you were facing your last hour alive. Pop open your email client or word processor or whatever and take that time to put down into words what you’d want to leave behind, and limit yourself strictly to that hour.

Who would you write to? One person, a bunch of people? Close friends? A child? A parent?

What would you say? What words would you want to leave behind, to endure beyond you? Tell someone that you loved them? Compress the most important life lessons you can think of for your children?

Write it down. Put it out of your mind and into a tangible, communicable reality.

Then send it. Send it now, send it today, send it while you are still able, because one day, you won’t be able to any longer.


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