Life goes on

I suppose 9/11 is one of those events where everyone remembers where they were when they heard what had happened. I lived in Graham, WA at the time, and had just finished my studies at a tiny Bible college. I had a job working at a drywall company at the time, and just as I was walking from the dorm where I lived to my car to drive to work, a friend of mine told me that what went down had gone down.

I guess it was about 6 or 6:30 am, so this is about when everything happened in NYC.

The whole day I was numb. I couldn’t believe people would even go to work when something like that had happened, but there we were doing things that drywall workers do.

After work, I had to go to the nearby Fred Meyer – think your local Walmart Supercenter and you get the idea – to watch TV footage of the Twin Towers being hit, then falling to the ground. And of course they showed it over and over and over.

We weren’t allowed to have TV’s in the dorms, so it was the only place to watch it. I and about 30 other students of the Bible school were standing there in the electronics department of the store watching the news coverage.

A few days after, one of the leaders of the school was speaking, I think during a worship service but I don’t remember. He said something along the lines of, “Sure we’re all sad about what happened a few days ago, but life goes on.”

I remember thinking he was really insensitive for saying that. How could he be so flippant about the awful events of a few days prior. Don’t we need a period of mourning or something before we can “move on” whatever that might mean?

But he was right. Maybe the man was a bit insensitive to say that when he did, but it’s the truth. If you recall that period of time, it wasn’t long before we all got caught up in our issues that had previously occupied our minds. The so-called bipartisan show of unity – again, whatever that means – was short lived, and it wasn’t long before the squabbling and infighting was again the norm. This time they had a legit complaint against the other, or so we thought. At least it gave those of us who need a side to take something to rally around (curse those republicrats!)

Now 22 years later, we’ve truly moved on. In light of what we know about blowback and intervention in international affairs, the initial moral outrage of 9/11 has been dampened a bit. We mourn the loss, but I believe we’re better educated about what the root cause of the attacks was in the first place (you should watch Charlie Wilson’s War if you haven’t already; it will clear up some things).

That’s the takeaway for me as I remember the events of 9/11/01. For better or worse, life goes on. We just need to be ready for the next break, be it good or bad. It’s all temporary anyway 🙂