I was asked to write a blog of what I was doing when The Towers came down. The memory came easily to me. But not so much the emotion.
The memory came easily because I was pregnant with my youngest, 7 months to be exact. I had a 2 year old and a 4 year old. A 4 year old who was “odd” and struggling to adjust to pre-school. I was living with my mother. Who was loving having the grandkids greeting her when she came home from work. Why was I living with my mother? My husband had chosen to be a truck drive after retiring with 2o years in the US Army as Military Intelligence. Says it, doesn’t it?
I was, like any pregnant mom, going to get off my feet and watch some television. When I turned the set on I remember just standing there with the remote in my hands trying to figure out “what show is this?” I remember struggling to wrap my head around the fact that this was real… that a terrorist attack of this magnitude was actually happening in the US.
I was 38. And any previous attacks of terror or shocking mass murder of innocents.. somehow didn’t register the way this did. (Probably due to my age or having kids, who knows.) This was mesmerizing in the sheer shock and scope.
The horror of how could this happen was there. The relief that it wasn’t happening in L.A. (I can admit that.) And the pride, oh I remember the pride I felt as American helped American. As the firefighters stormed in to do whatever they could to help any they could. As journalists braved the debris & ash to bring the story into every living room so we could ALL, KNOW the full impact as it happened. And as the passengers rushed the cockpit to crash land a plan rather than have it kill more innocents.
And I remember feeling angry that any group was so weak-minded they felt it was okay to wage war on innocents. And I remember wanting to bomb the shit out of the country responsible.
That event change all our lives. It changed our perception we were Top Dog & Invincible. It changed the direction of our politics and our government spending. It probably killed the space program. It raised Firefighter, as a profession, to the most honorable on earth!
We’ll never really know if this change is for the better or worse. (My time machine’s broken, how’s yours?) We do what everyone else does. We keep moving forward. But remembering these events help us grow as people. The images will never fade (especially as so much of the footage was caught on film) of the plane crashing into the second tower, of the crumbling of the first tower and then the second.
Even though over time our memory gets distracted. Its why anniversaries are so important. A chance to look back and remember a pivotal moment and its impact.
And now.. back to our regular programming….
Who got laid this weekend!?! 🙂