Time is a strange thing! For some of us it flies by, but for others it seems to slow down. On one hand we’ve all heard the phrase “time flies when you’re having fun” and on the other we’ve also heard the phrase “slow as Christmas”. The reality is that time is what it is! There’s only 24 hours in a day; no more and no less. You can’t make any more of it and you can’t save any of it. It is the same for all us. What changes though is the perception of the time we each have. When you are in the middle of something enjoyable time seems to go faster than expected, but when you’re a six year old child Christmas just seems to take forever to arrive and goes away too soon.

As we approach the 24th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the United States Pentagon, the issue of time comes up. 24 years seems like a long time! Especially when some of us more “senior” types think about the fact that firefighters entering “the job” now weren’t even born when the attacks occurred

On one hand it seems so long ago, but on the other, those of us who lived it can probably remember the exact location we stood when the first images began to come through of the towers falling and the Pentagon burning. No matter your perception of time as it relates to this specific national tragedy the fact is that the event did occur and it changed “us” forever. It changed how the nation viewed firefighters and impacted their collective expectation of us. As an occupation it shoved us well into the future and forced us to begin to think of ourselves as being “frontline” when it comes to the war on terror. No longer do we have the luxury of being a reactive emergency response force called upon once the incident happens. We are now expected to think, and act, in a proactive manner as we approach emergency operations in a more strategic manner.

The fire service is an industry full of traditions! Many of them are important and some not so much. Its ok to keep an eye on our history with a sense of pride as we are part of a group that has dedicated our lives to serving others. However, we must keep an eye on the future to ensure we are continuing to meet the needs of those we are charged to protect (i.e. citizens, co-workers, family). This involves every aspect of our industry. We must continually evaluate what, and how, we do things to ensure the health and safety of those around us. “Because we’ve always done it that way” is unacceptable!

“We must always look forward, but we have to understand our history in order to not repeat the mistakes of the past. Too often, there have been instances where people continue to pursue wrong courses of action because they do not take the time to think critically about what has happened in the past.” Sir Winston Churchill

My encouragement to you is to look to the past and hang onto the things that truly work, but look to the future and change what doesn’t.

Like time, pain has a degree of relativity to it. When pain is felt on a personal level it has a greater impact than when pain is experienced through an event that happened to someone else. On September 11, 2001 “we” as a nation hurt, but there are thousands of families who felt that pain on a personal level. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters never came home. Husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends went to bed that night knowing the other side of that bed would never be filled with the person they loved more than life itself. To this day those families live with a hole in their heart that will never be filled. There’s an old saying that “time heals all wounds” but unfortunately that’s not true. Time may help the pain lessen but the hole is still there.

Life changes fast! Take the time to tell those around you how much you care for them. Focus on the good and minimize the negative.

culturechief #chieftucker #leadershipvoid #itsnotaboutyou