September 11

Of course today is a humble day in our nation and in all the small towns and villages where normal people live, not just people who are representing cities and states. I know exactly where I was the minute the first plane hit - I don't think I will ever forget that. I was in the volvo wagon with the kid - she was a 3 month old then and we were headed for a visit with a friend who's baby is just about the same age. I had the radio on and when the news came over - I remember the dj's saying something about it being some kind of prank, like a Howard Stern thing. And then right after that, when the second plane hit, all voices turned hysterical. Once I got to Pam's house in front of her enormous tv, we just sat there with the babies in stupefaction. Just glued to it.

Watching the news and the review of the day yesterday, it crystallized to me that this is the first national tragedy my generation has experienced. We didn't have Vietnam or MLK or anything - this is our history. Hopefully we will never experience it again. I didn't personally know anyone, although I had an online friend who works at the Pentagon. There was someone in my town who I didn't know who died. I think that even if you didn't know anyone personally, that there is still room in your heart for appreciation and sorrow and a few tears to fall. I'm not a demonstrative person - at least I don't think so. I don't think I could go to those memorials every year - I'd be a basket case - me, the person who cracks the jokes at the funerals. I've seen men at the Vietnam Memorial and it's the names on the wall + what the memorial symbolizes or the AIDS quilt. Often it is just the symbol that can move a person to tears, or to action or to sympathy.