Remembering a Smile

Once again I find myself regretting all the time passed since I last posted anything on my blog. The minutae in our day to day lives just seems to take up way too much time. Sometimes it feels as though the hectic pace of life rules every waking minute of our days. However I firmly believe that we need to find the time to do the things that are important to us in order to stay sane and balanced in a world that often times seems out of control. To me, writing has always been one of those things and I need to recommit myself to trying to post every now and then to share thoughts, reflections, opinions and the occasional creative work with my friends, family and all others who read Musings from the Ether.

Something particularly potent provided the impetus for this posting: remembering a smile.

Here we are just past the 10th anniversary of 9/11 with all the media coverage, tributes, memorials, etc. I watched some of the programs and read some of the online stories and the horror of the day flooded back into my consciousness with a raw intensity that was second only to that I felt that very day. There was a deep sense of regret for our all too human capacity to inflict unspeakable harm upon our fellow man. There was profound sorrow for the incredible loss of life and destruction. Amid the terror of that day there were also immensely selfless acts of bravery by many forced into action by a desperate, unprecedented situation that helped to reaffirm that people can and will do good in the face of the worst kind of evil and mayhem. As I turned off the tv and clicked out of the last of the online stories, I felt exhausted by the myriad emotions that I was experiencing. I closed my eyes for a second, sighed and then it came to me like a warm glow of light in a cold dark night: I saw a smile!

Myra Aronson was a sweet woman I met at the Metropolitan Health Club in Boston when I was working there as membership director in the 1990s. She was a warm person who nearly always had a cheery demeanor and a smile for you. She had a quick wit and a deep love of challenging aerobics classes. You meet many people in that type of job and I can honestly say I do not remember many details of many of the people I signed up and whose memberships I renewed year in and year out but Myra had that smile and that I will always remember! To me it is Myra personified!


Myra was a passenger on Flight 11 on September 11, 2001.

There is radiance in the darkest of times and their recollection and it exists in the memory of those we lost. Celebrate the brightness they brought into our worlds. Find a smile for the smiles they gave to you. For that is the way they would have wanted it. Thanks Myra, I am forever indebted to you!

© 2011 Paul Caracciolo. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.