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Day Eighteen: One Man’s Junk is Another Man’s Treasure.

From a distance it looks like a wall covered with junk. Up close, it is a powerful memorial.

It was chance that we happened to stop by the Memorial of United Flight 93 today. Driving from Columbus, OH to Montclair, NJ yesterday, we decided to stop midway in Somerset, PA for the night. We were still tired from our epic Arkansas to Ohio trek and I was three days behind on posting to pinkplusorminus.

After we checked in to the Quality Inn just off the Turnpike, we saw the visitor’s guide and realized we were only about 10 miles away from the site of where a handful of heroes thwarted the efforts of terrorists on a fateful September morning.
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A small dirt lot in the middle of a giant green field is filled with cars on a Monday morning. Three National Parks tour guides man the site that is about half the size of a basketball court. There are some benches with names of United 93 passengers and crew. A few granite slabs with solemn words line the perimeter. But it is essentially a wooden wall erected to hold the tributes of every grateful individual who visits the site. Biker vests are nailed to the wall next to police badges. Kids toys line the small ledges of the wall next to collectible coins. Julius left his new water gun. People from all walks of life have scrawled their messages of thanks, love and respect from top to bottom.

There are three binders that hold the transcript from the cockpit that day. And every 15 minutes or so, one of the park rangers flips through a fourth binder filled with pictures of the passengers and crew and shares brief bios.

There is the young Korean man who was visiting his grandmother in New Jersey for her 100th birthday. There is the flight attendant who was in her 37th year of service to the airline. The youngest was a junior in college.

I don’t know how many flights you’ve been on but you can’t help but believe in providence when you think there were NO children on that flight. Have you ever been on a flight with no children? Ever?

A new memorial is currently under development. A more traditional memorial designed by a Los Angeles-based architect. I’m sure it will be beautiful. The plans include the erection of a “Tower of Voices” that will mark the entrance and exit to the park. The tower will house 40 aluminum wind chimes to honor the collective act of courage by the 40 passengers and crew of United 93.

I hope they keep the current wall, though. There’s something about the simple act of taking a moment of time to leave a small piece of yourself…whether it’s something you built and brought for the purpose of leaving it or something that you happened to have with you when you got there. Regardless, it’s a frozen moment in time. And it shows better than anything I’ve ever seen the true spirit of gratitude in this nation.

Not only did we once again capture a lifelong memory by going off the plan for a moment but I was reminded again of the importance of always giving everything a close look with an open mind. If you don’t, you might just end up with a life filled with walls of junk instead of one filled with meaningful moments, heartfelt tributes and lasting memories.