Posted in My Life, tagged history on September 12, 2011 |
1 Comment »
This weekend, I watched several September 11th documentaries and specials. In some ways, it all came back as if it was yesterday—but so much has changed in my life in the last ten years, it also felt like another lifetime.
I did not have children in 2001. If something like that happened today, I have no idea how I would explain it to Lucy and Finn. It was hard enough trying to explain the anniversary. Lucy kept asking why everyone’s houses looked like they were “decorated for the 4th of July.” She asked if we could go buy a big flag for our house too, so we did.
One of the shows I watched was “9/11: The Way it Happened” on MSNBC. The 2-hour show was the actual NBC broadcast from that morning, as it unfolded. It was surreal, because I was watching NBC that morning in 2001 and it was strange to re-watch it with all of the hindsight I have now. Cody and I both remarked on how composed and insightful Tom Brokaw appeared. He grasped almost immediately the way this event would change America. He talked about how we would no longer travel the same way or feel the same freedoms. He knew—with the foresight that likely only comes with having lived through other world-changing events—that our way of live would change forever.
Sunday morning, I read an essay Brokaw wrote in Parade. He talked about how he fought to keep his emotions in check, but couldn’t go on at one point. He wrote:
“I was doing relatively fine until later that day when a survivor from one of the towers began to describe his colleagues in wheelchairs who never made it out. I couldn’t stand the thought of those poor souls trapped by their paralysis, waiting for an elevator that never came. I choked up and passed our news coverage to another correspondent who carried on until I regained my composure.”
I suppose even the most poised among us was no match for the gravity of that day.
During the show, Cody and I talked a lot about that morning. We both marveled at the fact that we went to work. We watched two planes hit the towers and another hit the Pentagon, and yet still headed off to work. How naïve we were then. Of course, once we arrived, our offices shut down and we headed back home—and watched hours and hours of the grim coverage.
The ceremony Sunday morning at Ground Zero was a perfect way to mark the occasion. Paul Simon singing “The Sounds of Silence” was riveting. I’ll never forget it.
Did you do anything to mark the day? Did those of you with young children even try to explain it to them?
Read Full Post »
