I was in my office, doing something or another business-like.
The phone rang. It was Venus, the Business Continuity specialist down in Houston who worked for me at the time. “Did you hear? A plane crashed into the World Trade Center.”
Jeez. I conjured images of a little Piper Cub slamming into some offices. God, if it happened in my old office downtown, dozens could have been hurt or killed. “Huh. That’ll drum up some support for BC efforts for sure. Thanks.”
I got off the phone, tried to pull up CNN.com. No dice. ABCnews.com. Nope. Finally hunted down the BBC, which remained the most reliable site all day.
Someone suggested we call 11 September “Holy Fucking Shit Day.” They’re right, because those were the words I thought to myself as I saw the headlines that (a) it was an actual passenger jet, like I’ve flown on a hundred times, (b) there were now two impacts, and thus concluded (c) it was intentional.
Somebody had intentionally attacked the WTC via hijacking. How incredibly fucked up a mind would it take to do that?
Not much work got done the rest of the day.
I’d just started this blog a few weeks earlier. It gave me an outlet, someplace to put down what I was thinking, but looking back at those posts (which I may or may not quote from tomorrow, on Der Tag), I was already frantically emotionally distancing myself from the whole horror.
Did the world change? Was everything different? Yes and no.
No, since life goes on. While there will be moments of silence and observances and considerations and religious hoohah for me tomorrow, I also have work assignments to deal with, the CIO and my former supervisor (one of his direct reports) are coming to town, and ob-la-di-ob-la-da life goes on.
But in a fundamental way, things are different. In this country we are addressing profound questions of where we want to go as a nation. Internally, we are struggling with those who wish to impose order and (they say) security, and those who cling to our cherished freedoms. Externally, we’re dealing with deciding whether we use “harsh language” or Army Rangers and Stealth Bombers to deal with those who we consider a threat, either present or future.
Life goes on. But the events of 11 September, and what came after it, will be seen as a major turning point in American society, and in its foreign affairs, for decades to come.
And for me?
I’m glad I’m home with Margie, and Katherine, and both are safe, and I’m a lot more willing to do what I have to in order to keep them that way.
Life goes on, but differently in some ways. And maybe that’s just how life goes on all the time.