Skip to main content

10 years


Every year I've had this blog, I've written a 9/11 post around that day. This year is no exception, though I have a slightly different angle.

After having watched a lot of 9/11 programs the past week, I was struck by some things I had forgotten about or had never considered to begin with.

As tragic as the great loss of life was, it could have been exponentially worse. I cannot say for certain how many people worked in the WTC buildings, but according to replays of coverage from that day, it was anywhere between 30,000 and 50,000. Yet thanks to the time of day and the heroic efforts of many, the casualties were under 3,000. That is something to be grateful for.

Ten year ago, I remember people complaining the Bush waited too long to speak to the nation. However, according to the some of the replays, Bush spoke soon after the second plane hit the WTC, but before the third plane hit the Pentagon. That does not seem like a long time. But then again, maybe I am not remembering people's beef. {Follow-up note: I am thinking the issue is that he did not address the nation again until that evening. I guess I can understand why people questioned his waiting that long.}

The other thing I realized is that in the 10 years since 9/11, I have pretty much gone through my 30s. On that day, I was fewer than three months from turning 30. This morning, as the names and ages of the people who died on 9/11 crawled across my TV screen, I realized how many people between the ages of 29 and 39 had died that day. I noticed a couple of 29-year-olds, and it hit me that those people never became older than 29, whereas I am now 39. I had a similar thought when I noticed the names of 39-year-olds. I have lived an entire decade since that horrible day, whereas those 39-year-olds (and of course everyone else) never lived another day. Time stopped for them and, in many ways, their families.

Today at church, coincidentally, a reading and gospel were about forgiveness, anger, and not seeking vengeance. Our priest said that when you do not forgive someone else, you are hurting only yourself, that forgiveness is more for you. Although I can appreciate his sentiment, I do think it is something that comes easier for someone like me, who did not lose a loved on that day. If I had, I am not sure how merciful I could be.

I can only hope and pray for a more peaceful world. Meanwhile, I will remember 9/11 like so many others.

God bless America

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What a year 2021 has been (Day 7)

I have almost no words for what happened yesterday at the Capitol. Protesting is one thing (though I truly think it is and has been time to move on). But to storm the Capitol? A friend on Facebook said, quite simply, " Almost 20 years ago a group of people on an airplane sacrificed themselves to protect the Capitol. How far we have fallen!" Indeed. And, yes, it IS storming the Capitol. I have seen numerous videos of people knocking down barricades/fences, pushing police officers, and breaking windows and climbing through them. That is beyond protesting. And even if a protestor did not do those things, if they followed those seditionists past those barricades and into the building, they are just as guilty. I did not support the violent protests this summer that resulted in damages to businesses and public property (I was in full support of the actual protests). But I also acknowledged as a white person, I cannot truly put myself in the position of a black person who is angry a

Melancholy and Gratitude

 A few days ago, I decided to do gratitude posts on FB. I was good the first two days. Day 3 I got a little snarky as I posted about "doing the right thing" in regards to Covid. The Covid cases in Allegheny County have been on the rise. For a while, we had daily counts between 50 and 100. After July 4, we saw a spike for a few weeks, and then cases were back below 100. Unfortunately, other than one "low" day this week, where "only" 288 cases were reported, we have had between 500 and 620 daily cases. Fortunately, only a few people have died this week. But of course, any death is too many. I started to keep track of cases, deaths, and hospitalizations on 6/12/20. On that day, since 3/12, Allegheny County had had 2,034 cases, 352 people had been hospitalized, and 172 people had died. On 11/19/20, the county has seen a total of 22,042 cases, 1,724 people have been hospitalized, and 465 people have died from Covid since 3/12. In just over 8 months, we have had

Hug your loved ones!

I hate to say that I am still working through my grief. I mean, in some ways I can imagine I will always be grieving. But I feel pretty confident it will get easier, and I will cry less and less. But, yeah, I guess I am still working through it. Yesterday, a thought occurred to me: I had not hugged my dad since the end of February, and that will now be the last time I ever did. I did not see him for almost three months because of COVID, and then at the end of May, he started his series of hospital visits with skilled nursing stints in between. I was always afraid to hug him then. What if I gave him COVID? And yet when my dad had really bad ICU delirium during a few different hospital stays, I fed him. If I could do that, why not hug him? So I cried a bit last night thinking about that. I am not necessarily a big hugger; I used to hate it, and then probably before Jordan was born, I got back to doing it again. Before COVID, I hugged my friends goodbye (and sometimes hello). I always wou