Scattered thoughts on 9/11

I can't believe it has been ten years since 9/11.  TEN YEARS.

One year for Christmas (years before 9/11) my older sister Kristy gave me a pocket atlas, among other things.  On the front cover was a picture of the twin towers in New York... I still have that atlas and whenever I pick it up, I look at it a little longer.  I'm not sure if I even knew what the buildings were when Kristy first gave it to me.

Out of all the songs that came out in the wake of 9/11, Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" was by far the best.  Very well-written song.  The other country music tributes, as I remember, were infinitely inferior.

There was a movie that came out about 9/11; it involved the rescuing of someone and an inside look at the passengers who prevented the plane from hitting the White House.  I had no desire to watch the movie... images get to me, they sink in deep.  If it's something frightening or disturbing in any way, it sticks to me. I didn't want to see any more detail about the towers collapsing on top of people.  For the same reason, I thank the Lord and my guardian angel that I never saw footage of people jumping out of the buildings.  The image of the towers collapsing on the news is enough.

My mom woke me up that morning when the first plane hit.  Still, I went to school.  My history professor gave the class a choice: either hold class as normal, to focus our minds on something else, or turn on the news.  We watched the news the whole time and the class was collectively in shock.

Did anyone see this coming?  Even though the first Iraq war wasn't all that long before 9/11, the fight never came to us.  Not since Pearl Harbor!  What a blessing it was, for the United States to be safe for 60 years.  A luxury, really, if you look at other places in the world.

There was a priest who died giving the last rites to a fireman.  He was a chaplain for the firemen.  And he never saw it coming... but he died doing his duty, fulfilling the vows he took when he was ordained.  Is there a death more honorable?