Saturday, September 10, 2011

9-11.....

I found myself oddly sad this week with all the talk of 9-11 memorials coming up for tomorrow. I mean, I wasn't in New York City, or Pennsylvania, or even Washington DC that day 10 years ago. No, I was sleeping with my precious newborn baby boy when my husband called to tell me a plane had ran into a building. 
Yet I feel sad each year as the date passes. I guess I feel sad because of how the world changed for me that day. As a new mom everything was scary anyway. Now our country was thrust into a war that we never wanted to get into. As an Army brat I knew that terrorism could be scary. I had heard my parents talk when I was growing up about things that most kids my age didn't have a clue about. Bombs exploding places, men being killed in training accidents. Nope, my parents apparently didn't believe in sheltering. Ha! But I never really expected anything bad to happen in the States. That stuff happened where all the crazy people live. 
On that day I remember my grandma called to check in on me and the baby. She said something that I will never forget. She said that she remembered when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and that my generation didn't have any idea what this all would mean for us. 
I thought about that and how she must have felt, being 75 years old watching history repeat itself. Watching an attack in our nation yet again. Knowing that it would cost countless more lives in the months and years to come because of impending war. 
Ten years have passed so quickly. I imagine though for all the families that lost loved ones that day it passed like a snail in a snow storm. I imagine that for families who have lost their babies to an ugly war in Afghanistan time has also crept along. For the rest of us, we've continued to have babies, move houses, embark into little league, and just move forward. 
September 11th didn't really change how I lived, I've had other life changing events occur that did. But it did make me see the world differently than I had previously. I heard a 9-11 survivor say recently, " when death comes knocking on your door it WILL NOT matter what kind of house you live in. It WILL NOT matter what school you went to or what job you had." 
Death will come for all of us one day and when we look back, what will we have done? Have we made peace with God? Have we lived for Him or ourselves. It doesn't matter if you don't believe in God, when we leave this planet He will be there waiting. 
As I remember this event in our nations history I'm reminded of a quote from Edmund Burke, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."  
I hope that as a nation and as individuals we would see the world different. We would see that to do nothing in this life is to let evil triumph. To live for One who created us to do good in this world is far greater than gaining goodies and accolades. To look out not for our own interests but also for the interests of others.

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