You Can Leave the World Behind, but It Follows Anyway

A few fucks to give this reverent Sunday evening.

Watching the final journey of Queen Elizabeth from Balmoral to Edinburgh on the 21st anniversary of 9/11 reminds me of that awful morning when I was also so far from home…in Alaska with my two babies. It was a life changing day for a young military family.

My last time in Edinburgh was a happy time of celebration of the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan.

It’s beautiful and touching to watch the Scots line the roads and bow as she passes. It’s respect for a woman who served her country for 70 years, with grace and steadfastness. It’s also just frankly beautiful to watch people come together to usher in a new time, especially after so much in the last 20 years.

It hits different when you watch history unfold in a foreign place.

You’ll always remember where you were.

Places collect memories and reconcile them in a strange but comforting fashion.

All of the significant things that happened at this time of the year, or in these places in other life timelines.

Crying, curled up in my dorm room at Kutztown with my sister on the night Princess Diana was killed.

The passing of my close friend Wendy, right after I arrived in Bali for the very first time. (Her birthday is this month.)

And learning of the passing of my dad while I was in France, only a few days from now, already almost a year ago this week.

Commonalities and differences cross each other in patterns, but the emotions remain the same.

“History is not the past but a map of the past, drawn from a particular point of view, to be useful to the modern traveller.”

Henry Glassie, US historian

About the Author

Keri Tietjen Smith is an Applied Psychology Practitioner, talent strategist, and writer focused on the future of work, reinvention, and human systems. Her work blends psychology, culture, and storytelling to help people navigate complex transitions in careers, identity, and modern life.

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