September 11, 2001 was of course a day that changed our lives, our hearts, our country fundamentally. Will you ever forget where you were, what you were doing...surely not. I had actually just gotten out of the shower when my dear friend Lisa called. "Are you watching t.v.? Something horrible is happening." Pointing the remote at the little black box on my dresser that day turned into something I could have never dreamed or imagined. I now had an event in my lifetime that might be comparable to the way my grandparent must have felt when they learned about Pearl Harbor. Or the way my parents might have felt when they learned of the assassination of J.F.K., or Martin Luther King, Jr. The only difference...they learned about those terrible events in our history after the fact. I was sitting in shock watching this happen live. Myself, and millions of others watched as thousands died before our very eyes. I heard a Pathologist on t.v. once say that death under a microscope is merely colors and shapes. I found out that day that death on national t.v. is much of the same...colors and shapes. The limestone of the pentagon, white smoke, black wingtip shoes and brown high heels trying to escape the white smoke, a lush open green field in Pennsylvania, black towers.
As our President sat in a classroom that day, he continued reading the story of a pet goat because he didn't want to frighten the children. As those same children marveled that the President of the United States was actually reading them a story, cowards attacked. These attacks spawned two wars that, to this day, add to a rising death count affecting countless lives. While the mom in me likes to imagine that my two brave Marines are a part of an elite force that can conquer the world on any given day, 9/11 taught me that despite our nation's economic and military superiority on that day in September, we were not invulnerable.
Our ability to share has changed since that day ten years ago. It came before twitter and facebook. It was pre-youtube, and Google was barely four years old. Now we are able to share our memories, our pain, and even our triumphs with a world that back then, couldn't have heard us quite so easily. The motto was "Never Forget", and of course, we never will. The wall to wall coverage you can expect over the next few days will be sure of that. It helps remind me that whatever our differences, we all do love our country, and compared to so many others, we are very fortunate to live in the most extraordinary democracy the world has ever known. We are a people, though scarred, God has continued to bless beyond measure. And though some memories are hard, many of us find healing in sharing. I know I do. Thanks for listening.
Matt & Luke, I miss you beyond words, and you continue to make me proud. Semper Fi.
Good To Go,
Proud Marine Mom x2
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