Seven years ago to the day... it's rare that you can remember a whole day, you know?
So much of life blurs. We wake, we eat, we work, we love, we sit in front of computers. Then there are those days you feel jarringly alive and alert. Hopefully it's for a good reason, such as your wedding day or when a child is born. Sometimes it's really because the day was just SO random (a couple of days in college come to mind), or a really great day on vacation. I can playback my wedding day or the days my children were born at will -- much like a movie with meaning only to me and a very select audience. I'll never, ever forget the crack in Paul's voice, and the utter amazement as he held Bunny the first time and said, "She's so pretty!" Nor will I forget a certain Saturday when Paul was in graduate school (and I was in limbo, more or less) when we were sitting on what passed for a deck at the Armpit, eating corn flakes for breakfast, and Casper popped his head over the fence asking if we were going to the kickball tournament that morning. The rest of that day was insanely fun and memorable.
Then there is a that day. This day. September 11. Ugh. No need to put it down in detail... everyone has their own version of that day. The weird part is how I imagine pretty much everyone who was not too young (or too old) also remembers that day all too clearly. All the flags at half mast displayed on houses are evidence of that one.
An interesting compilation of personal stories about that day can be found at http://www.pbs.org/itvs/caughtinthecrossfire/after911.html.
2 comments:
What's interesting is that even though my students were 2 or 3, they "remember." They seem to remember what their parents said. I started to tear up when I was telling the kids about the firefighters who ran in to the building when everyone was getting out. I showed them a New Yorker magazine from Oct 2001 where there was kids on the cover were dressed up as police and firefighters for Halloween.
I dunno...I think in some cases I would rather not think about it anymore, b/c for many reasons life changed for me and our father. I guess I feel like I am constantly reliving it every time I think of what our dad went through after 9/11, and all of the aftermath of it. Today I had to wear red, white and blue for "Patriots Day" when really I just wanted to wear black for mourning.
Have you seen the Stone movie with Nicolas Cage (WTC)? I was not really 'wanting' to see it, but I tell you, it was a really good movie. Really well done and kept on a level, with 2 men in jeopardy, that a viewer could grasp.
The magnitude of the consequences of that day... on a body count level, on a purely personal level, on the lingering ramifications for nations and individuals... it's all so much to digest. So much more complicated that, say *my* perception of say Pearl Harbor. But then again, maybe that's because we didn't live through it. The tragedies we live through are always more poignant, I s'pose.
And of course we've chatted about whether the stress of everything while I was pregnant with Bunny could manifest in her temperament...
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