And So it Continues

I was standing in my kitchen in South Carolina the morning of 9/11. I had come in from the sweltering heat, to get a bottle of water from the fridge, and happened to glance up at the TV. As a rule CNN was usually on and for a moment I thought perhaps I had inadvertently turned on one of the movie channels. Clearly what I was seeing had to be a Bruce Willis movie, it certainly couldn’t be live television. Why would CNN be showing a jet liner careening into the world trade center?

Like the rest of the US, I spent endless hours watching the coverage. At times in disbelieve and always with a huge weight pushing down on my heart. My daughter called and asked what this all meant, I recall telling her that I was only certain that the world had officially changed. We all knew someone who was affected, I had no connection to any of those murdered that morning, but like so many knew of someone who was stranded somewhere in the world.

A former neighbor in the Los Angeles area described how eerie it was to suddenly go to no air traffic. If you have lived in the area you probably take for granted the number of small planes pulling banners, police and news copters up to the jet liners flying in and out of LAX and John Wayne that fill the sky. Then to suddenly have that be gone, the silence must have been deafening.

9/10 was the very last time I actually walked a friend to the gate in Savannah, there was no fuss any bother. You simply said have a good flight and that was it. You were free to roam the airport…. that seems a lifetime ago.

I reflect a bit more on this since the recent attacks in London. In fact I actually know many more folks in London, then I did in New York. I find myself watching the coverage and in other ways seeing if a name comes up of someone I know.

I am impressed with the swiftness of the British resolve and the straightforward approach of dealing with this tragic way of life. Sadly a way of life that is all of ours these days.

In the following days, a 26-year-old Brazilian man was shot to death in a subway, a tragic case of mistaken identity. I am sure fueled with a great deal of dread and adrenalin off the scale.

The fact is I feel badly for this young man and his family and I feel equally as bad for the police. I will not sit and play Monday Morning QB on what the mood and disposition of a country under attack should be. The wack jobs are currently winning and all our lives are forever, it seems, thrown into a blender of agitation and a somewhat well reasoned paranoia.

Last week the power went out here. A drunk drove into a light pole, but for a second our minds turned to other options and that mere step change in our thinking makes me realize how much our lives have all changed since 9/11.