Remembering 9/11

Last night, we started watching the coverage on National Geographic about the events and perspectives of September 11, 2001. It's so hard to believe that the 10th anniversary of these attacks is coming up in a couple of weeks - when I can remember it just like it was yesterday.

I can tell you exactly where I was that morning, what I was doing when I heard... and the details of not being able to locate John because he was in a conference for work. I remember the days and weeks after the attacks - the emotions, the stories, the interviews, the magazines, the television, the patriotism, the heroism, the heart-break.

We watched the first episode of the series last night, and both John and I were amazed at how we were instantly taken back to those moments both in reality and emotion. It's crazy how much comes up that you don't expect. I got the same chills, nausea, and tears stinging my eyes that I did on the days that it was unfolding.

At the end of this particular episode - they mentioned Pearl Harbor. And suddenly it all connected for me. When people talk about Pearl Harbor around me (which I don't think has ever happened, but go with it) it really means nothing - it's just a date in history. A movie. A sad story that generations before me experienced.

Friends, September 11th is our Pearl Harbor. Our children will never understand what it was like to live through those days. They won't know what it felt like to watch it unfold on live television - watching the plane fly into the building... watching the towers crash to the ground... watching the aftermath. It will just be a date they have to remember for their history classes - but for us, it's a day that will live in our hearts and memories forever.

I shutter to think that September 11th was greater in magnitude and impact than Pearl Harbor was - for the speed of information involved and I think the size and complexity of the attack itself was on a larger scale. The feelings though of our country being under attack rings the same in both situations...

I am scared to think of what event might happen in the future that would become the infamous day that will define their generation. I would hope that they don't have one, but evil lives in this world... and it's unlikely that something large won't happen again. I hope and pray that it doesn't. I pray that for my children. I pray that for all of our children.