Who and Where We Were

Hi.

Has it really been twelve years?  Twelve?

It seems impossible, but here we are, twelve years later, going about our lives.

When I first heard news of the attack, I was a freshman, standing on one of my marching band poker chips on the practice field.  We were rehearsing our formations for The Beatles' Penny Lane.  I remember my section leader telling someone what had happened.  I don't know how she found out.  I don't know if our teacher knew yet.

I remember feeling really silly because I didn't know what she was talking about.  I didn't know what the World Trade Center even was.  I certainly didn't know the extent of the story, or how serious it was for that matter... Until I went to Mrs. Beam's Rhetoric class.

She had the TV on, and we watched in stunned silence.  That seems to be the phrase everyone uses, doesn't it?  Stunned silence?  But how else could we watch it?  The hallways were unusually quite.  Just worried, anxious murmurings among classmates.

What I remember most was wondering if it truly was the start of the end of the world.  I thought, "This is it.  I'm not going to have a chance to do anything.  I'm never going to get married.  Or have kids."  I suppose that was selfish, but I was a frightened fourteen year old.

Soon after, I would realize the real weight of what had happened.  The immense number of lives lost.  The war that ensued.  Since then, each 9/11, I've felt almost sacrilegious going on with life as usual on the anniversary of such destruction.

Each year, as I watch the televised tribute specials, waves of chills go down my spine when the footage of the day is played.  Disbelief at the decisions some of the people in the buildings and planes had to make.  Sorrow as I see the photos of the victims and think, "To so many of us, all they will ever be is a photograph.  That seems wrong."

One day I hope to visit the museum.  On 60 Minutes this week they previewed some of the memorials being created for it.  A huge hallway will be filled with photos of every known victim.  They will also have a place where family members of each victim have recorded something about their loved one.  I feel compelled, like it's the least I could do, to try and know a little bit about some of them.

I remember the bond of unity our country adopted after this event.  And I see the state we are in now.  How quickly we lose sight of what's important.  I guess it's in our human nature.  Even Peter denied Christ after claiming he would die for him.

I guess, today, I pray that God would instill a piece of that unity in us again.

Talk to you later.

Aim

How good and pleasant it is 

when God's people live together in unity!

                                        Psalm 133:1