Here we are again – 9/11/2011.
Ten years ago on the evening of 9/10/2001, I watched as Ed McCaffrey suffered a compound leg fracture during Giants-Broncos MNF.
I went to work early the next morning to prepare for our annual department strategy meeting scheduled to begin that afternoon. Turned out not much work got done that day (or really, at all that week) with the news that hit me as soon as I walked in the door.
It was not college graduation or buying a house that made me feel like an adult – it was 9/11/2001. Any remains of childhood innocence vanished for me that day, at the age of twenty-five, as the country witnessed that terrible attack on our own land.
***
Here we are again, another anniversary of sadness and despair.
Have we, as a country, ever really recovered from it all? Only a few brief moments united until the initial phase of healing ended, until we began to fall into a downward spiral divided.
***
NBC News used “Hallelujah” to wrap up coverage several nights that horrible week in September 2001, which touched me so very deeply. Though Leonard Cohen wrote it many years before, it had been used in the movie Shrek that was released earlier in 2001. I’ve chosen to share that version here, to convey the sense of innocence that the country felt in the months before September 11, 2001.
Posted on September 11, 2011, in Memories. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
Let’s never forget what we lost. Innocence.
I heard a very moving story on the CBC radio this week. “The Invisible Girl” tells the chilling tale of what school children with classrooms in the shadow the of the twin towers experienced on September 11th. The story focuses on Halaina Hovitz and her 7 year battle with mental health issues from that horrendous morning when Halaina’s childhood ended. She clearly states that her childhood (as did so many) ended on that horrendous day!
You ask important questions; the are no easy answers. It would be great if that spirit of togetherness, of sharing across geopolitical, religious, and ethnic boundaries could continue into the next decade after 9/11 http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2011/09/08/the-invisible-girl-helaina-hovitz/
Byw, another great renditioner of Hallelujah is done by Canadian singer, K. D. Lang. Here’s a link to her singing it:
Her performance of the song at the openning ceremonies to the winter games in 2010 is moving and breath-taking; just couldn’t find a good video of it.