On Remembering 9/11

I was going to write on fashion today. I had my notes and magazines out, ready to discuss the edgy vs classic...but after watching the news this morning, I think I will wait until next week. The news is full of flashbacks to 9/11...one of those days that you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing. Eight years ago this morning, I was just waking up after a long night at the emergency room. Little One had been very sick, and so The Boy (who was the Little Boy at the time) and Little One were still sleeping, and I had stumbled downstairs to make some coffee. I flipped on the tv just in time to see the first plane fly into the towers. I was watching the Today show and I remember Matt Lauer and Katie Couric were confused...trying to determine whether it was an accident or deliberate. Minutes later, when the second plane hit, it had become clear...and I remember The Husband calling from work...asking if what he had heard was correct. Soon after, the plane flew into the Pentagon...and for hours, Americans walked around with a sense of sadness and fear...wondering if there was more to come.

After making sure that everyone in the family was safe, I remember saying a prayer of thanks...because we have a lot of friends and family in that area. Then a second prayer of thanks, because The Husband travelled extensively in those days, and had just returned from a flight the day before that could have been...and that was as far as I could let myself think....

I still remember the look on the President's face when Andy Card whispered to him as he read to some elementary school children in Florida. Years later, it still angers me when I think about how some people ridiculed and judged him for his immediate response and the look on his face. To be the President and hear those words...in front of a group of children...and try to compose yourself, yet quickly decide what to do...is unimaginable. For all the debate that will continue for years on how, why and what he did over the next several years...I think there can be little argument that for those next few weeks, he was a source of comfort and inspiration for our country. I will always appreciate his strength and emotion in those first few days...and I will never lose the picture in my mind of how he flew into Ground Zero to be with the workers in those first hours....

And so this morning, as I watch President and Mrs. Obama observe a moment of silence at the White House, I'm saying a prayer for all of those who lost loved ones and friends that day. And for our country, which lost some of it's innocence that day. But I'm also reminding myself of the love and support that we received from all over the world...the image of Tony Blair speaking to crowds of sobbing people in England, vowing to help us in any way they could...the messages from my friends in France...the outpouring of support from our usual naysayers...a reminder that it is a very small world and most people are good...

So until next week, with a moment of silence and a prayer of thanks....