Remember to Remember 9/11

This morning I was standing out in the playground, dropping Grace off at school, with all of these tiny little girls and boys running around our feet, none of them taller than knee high.

Her teachers Krystyn and Rachel were asking me about how things were going at Doo Wop, when I noticed the American Flag at the gas station next door had suddenly been dropped to half mast.

I got nervous and felt the hair on my arms stand on end. "Why is the flag at half mast?" I asked them. Just then I remembered, "It's September 11th." I said. "Thank God it's not that day."

"What has it been? Five years now?" Rachel asked.

"Well, it was September 11, 2001." I said, "And this is 2008."

"So, Seven Years!" Krystyn said.

"I was in class when we found out." Rachel told us. "Our teacher told us, 'Don't pay attention to that tv, focus on your work. You need to get all of your work done.' So, we didn't know what was really going on until after class."

"I can't believe that!" Krystyn said picking up a little one that had fallen, who just as quickly ran off, "Our teacher turned it on tv and we all just sat there and watched it on television the whole time. They basically cancelled the whole rest of classes

"Sam and I combined our checking accounts that day. I remember watching the whole thing on the bank tv screen. We were in seminary, and someone came in at the beginning of class telling us about the first plane going down. No one knew anything more about it at that point, except that it was a horrible thing to have happen. So, there were about 150 us in there, and we all prayed about it. Then we went on with class. When class was out, I went out to the car to meet Sam to head over to the bank. We had gotten engaged August 19th, and this was about a month later. When I got to the car, I was getting ready to tell him something, and I could see the look on his face, and I knew something was wrong. He was listening to it on the radio. We listened all the way to the bank and then got in there and just starred at the tv."

"What a terrible day." Krystyn said, wandering off after another little one.

Whatever moment you took to remember 9/11, or if it was only now you realized that it was today, I just wanted to devote this space to that memory.

Mostly, to thank God, that all of these recent entries are about cleaning up a silly mess, and not mourning the loss of 1000's of people.

A little perspective never hurt anyone!

MJ