Six Years Ago

I've seen several entries on this theme, so I'll join in.

Six years ago, on Tuesday, September 11, I recall being in great good spirits. It was a perfect, sunshiny-yet-crisp autumn day. Cliff and I had spent some time that weekend in Arkansas at a friend's house and we had a marvelous time. As I performed my tasks at my place of employment (Kohl's Distribution Center) I said a quick prayer for my friend, because I knew she had big plans to be flying to Texas that day and meeting up with a daughter. Then the two of them would fly together to visit another daughter in Washington state and spend some quality family time.

My assistant supervisor approached each of us employees, one at a time, to tell us about an airplane hitting the twin towers. At that point I assumed it was some sort of horrible accident, and silently prayed for the people involved.

At my 9 o'clock break, there were televisions turned on in the lunch room; then the horror of what was happening started to sink in. That's when it hit me that my friend Lona was flying. I wondered if the terrorist attacks were going to be nationwide, and whether her plane was safe. (Her plane was grounded in Texas and she eventually had to rent a car and drive home.)

For days, newsmen speculated on the happenings. For all those days, I numbly shut myself in a private world where I didn't let myself dwell too much on the horror. Because I felt I couldn't stand it.

I recall Judy, the lady I rode to work with, saying, "I just can't believe this happened. And we're going to work, going on with our lives, just the same as always."

I think we wondered on some level why our lives still seemed so normal, when so many had lost their lives, or their loved ones, to an act of terrorism.

I'm still not comfortable watching films of the carnage. Something in me wants to forget it all happened, while another part of me knows that isn't possible or even desirable.

I still wait for the other shoe to drop. They did it once, and if we don't destroy ourselves with all the fighting and bickering, the drugs and violence, I know they'll do what they can to obliterate us. They'll always be trying.

Our world will never be the same.