Where were you?

December 7, 1941
November 22, 1963
February 1, 2003
August 6, 1988
March 22, 1990
March 09, 1993

Any of these dates ring a bell?
A few of them should. Others? Well, they are only significant to me. Dates I will never forget.

September 11, 2001

This is a date we should never forget.  

Rudy Giuliani was quoted, "We have met the worst of humanity with the best of humanity."

Where were you on September 11, 2001? Do you remember? I sure do. 

I was seating a patient in the dental office where I worked.   I remember he lumbered to the dental chair. Not unusual. It's not a chair most would run to!  He was distraught. Rubbed his hands through his hair as he settled in. I asked, "I realize this isn't a favorite place for most, but are you alright? You seem a bit anxious." 

Right away he answered. "A plane just flew into the World Trade Center."

We talked of how that scenario could have possibly happened. Soon, everyone in the office was talking about it. Patient after patient came in telling of planes flying into buildings. We were stunned. All of us. We looked at each other with gazed faces. We soon realized this wasn't an accident. 

You know the rest. At least you should. That day should be seared into your conscious like the day Kennedy was shot. November 22, 1963. Which, by the way, was the same day the author ( my favorite ) CS Lewis, died. 

I went home on September 11, 2001. I wasn't on one of those planes. I got to see my family that night. Didn't have to call and say my goodbyes from a sky phone. What was that like? Knowing you were going to crash...to look evil in the eye?  Were they calm? Did they say what they wanted to say? 

On September 11, 2001, I cried. A lot. My son wiped a tear from my cheek and said, "I'ts okay mommy. It's okay." 

I shook my head and said, "No Mark. Today it's not okay." 

Those people would want to be alive today. They would have wanted to come home and do all the ordinary, daily things they did every day. Things they probably did that morning. Things like hitting the snooze button a few times, shuffle to the coffee maker, take a shower and rush out to their ordinary day. Only, it wasn't an ordinary day. Today they would die at the hands of evil. They never could have possibly imagined such a thing could ever happen. But it did. May we never ever forget that awful day. Time shouldn't blur what happened on September 11, 2001. We owe it to them to live our days full and well. 

I pledge to do just that. Will you join me?    

By the way. Those dates above? 

Pearl Harbor

Kennedy Assassination/CS Lewis death

Columbia space shuttle disaster

My wedding date

My daughter's birth

My son's birth