9-11

Yesterday I watched, "United 93," a historical fiction about the flight that landed in the Pennsylvania fields.  It is based on fact, but with some artistic license as we don't know all the details.  Nevertheless, we know more about this doomed flight than any other of that day.

I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.  But get ready to yell and and cry.  As the terrorists kept praying to their god, I kept saying, "You're going straight to hell."  I guess that was the only comfort of that day, that the terrorists would go "straight to hell."

It has been 15 years since this happened.  And yet it seems like yesterday I was in Paris, coming back from an excursion to Versailles, to see on the hotel lobby TV the planes flying into the world trade towers.  I spent that day and night trying to contact my mom.  All I wanted was my mommy.  I felt a world away and despaired of ever getting home.

Our travel companions shared their grief with us, people from around the world.  Our tour guides encouraged us to try to enjoy our trip, as we couldn't leave anyways.  So we did.  

In fact, the tragedy almost seemed to enhance our journey through Europe.  We laughed so much and had great times with each other.  Even in the midst of the not knowing, we could only live one day, one moment at a time.  

This is our generation's Pearl Harbor.   I'm sure my grandparents remembered where they were when that happened.  Now we remember where we were when this happened.  

And it is interesting to me how through the many memoirs I have read since then, almost everyone was affected by 9-11, even those far away from New York and DC, even those who didn't know anyone there.  

It affected all of us Americans.  And for a short while, it united us.  I really don't want to go through that trauma again.  Do you?  What does it have to take to unite us again?

I am learning through some trials of my own these days that I have to let things go.  It is amazingly difficult to do so sometimes, but in the whole scheme of things, do those things really matter.  I have my health, such as it is, my family, my friends, my country, and my God.  I have everything I need.  It is easy to forget sometimes.  But then when I think of 9-11, I remember, and I am thankful for the gift of life.