9.11.06

McPickles Editorial

This has been a very hard day for me. Five years on from 9/11 and the emotions of that day - the feelings from that day - are still pretty raw. Amazingly, the idea of 9/11 - the tragedy of that day - has not lost its shock value. I am still hoping that those hijacked planes miss their targets - and of course gasp when I see the fireballs pulse out of the buildings. On another level, however, it is hard for me to imagine a time before 9/11. I am not so certain I could even point out what was different.

How do you pick up the threads of an old life?

The Answer is that you can't. An old life can never be reclaimed in full. I know this because for so long I have tried to preserve everything in my past. Things I thought were worth fighting for. Relationships. Connections to places like New York and New Orleans. Innocence lost. For the most part it has been in vain.


There are families throughout the country who lost a lot more than I did on that horrible day in 2001. They are striving with all their might to preserve the life they had prior to 9/11, even if they will never be able to reclaim it. A wife will see a picture of her fallen husband on a kitchen table and try to remember the touch of his lips. A father will open the door to the room where his son used to play and remember his smile. A brother will think back to the sound of his sister's voice and remember the way they used to laugh together. A daughter will see a photo of her mother and begin to cry. All of this is happening in America today. It is very real.

Nearly 3,000 people died on 9/11. But the survivors -the loves ones in particular- have had to face that tragedy every day since then. I won't say this is the real tragedy of 9/11. But it is there in the shadows, thousands of people with their lives buried in the wreckage alongside their loved ones. It is for these people that I cry hardest.

Hopefully, these survivors will be more successful than I at preserving the happiness of their past. But I don't know if that is possible. You see, I am pretty stubborn.

In Closing, Remember Two Things. First, All You Need is Love. Second, Never Take Anything for Granted. As we learned on 9/11, the good things in life...love, friendships, family, life itself...are held together in a fragile balance.