Ten Years

Like many, many people across the world today, I am pausing to take a moment to think about this anniversary. Like every one else, I too have one of those stories about where I was when it happened, how I responded and so on. I didn't know anyone killed in the tragedy, but wept along with them because I recognized this was one of those events where your life, perspectives, politics, and country would change. It was a before/after situation and forever changed the world. It changed my world in subtler ways.

9/11 changed our world in Indiana. Four airplane tickets in my hand suddenly become null and void and I would have never been able to put my kids on a plane with me at that time anyway. We were supposed to come out to Oregon via the plane just a handful of days after the disaster. Instead we came out on the train--a better choice in hindsight.

A writing assignment given to me in late August, to write a book about a terrorist group I had never even heard of, suddenly turned into a totally different project in September. Al Queda went from a foreign term to the number one phrase used in the world overnite and certainly make the writing job more complicated.

Writing assessment materials for a dozen different companies changed .. . when writing, we could not use the words airplane or skyscraper for two years. Might upset the test takers, you know.

9/11 changed the world in countless ways. More than anything, for me, it rattled my belief in safety and made me look at the world with a more jaded, cautious eye. Today, ten years later, my heart goes out to those who are not just mourning the way the event affected our country, but who lost someone they cared about in the tragedy. Find peace in whatever way you can and hold those lost souls close to your hearts.