Do You Remember Where You Been?

I'm wrapping up my day, thinking I should write something about the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, but knowing I have nothing to say that hasn't been said much better in many other places. It just doesn't seem right -- since I am keeping a blog and I did post something today -- just to let the day pass with nothing but a silly little piece about a silly little group and its silly little protest about the name of a department store. It probably would have been better to post nothing.

So I don't know. Like everyone else, I remember exactly where I was when I heard, but I can't imagine the value of recounting my whereabouts here. Like many people, I wasn't directly touched by the attacks; no friends or relatives of mine were in the Towers or the Pentagon. I've spent my entire life in the midwest, and know very few people in New York and Washington. What would be the point of writing about what I felt, when so many other people felt it so much more intensely? So I don't know. I was lucky.

I went to NY a few weeks later, and I remember thinking, These people are so resilient. How did they do it? I guess they just had to keep going. I met a friend for dinner and drinks, and we were out until 1:30 in the morning; when I finally left the bar to head back to my hotel, people were everywhere, as they always are there, laughing, having a good time. That was something.

The next day I went for a long walk and saw hundreds of handmade "missing" signs, and firehouses decorated with wreaths and cards and drawings sent in by little kids from all over the country. I don't know. I guess when people can pull together and support each other like that during the day, they've earned the right to keep going, to try to do the things they always do. It was sad, it was hopeful.

See? I have little, if anything, to add to the discussion. I think our president squandered an enormous amount of worldwide goodwill with a staggeringly, embarrassingly inept foreign policy. I'm not a particularly political person, and I'm not even sure it's right to get into this kind of thing when I'm just trying to remember that day, but that's a part of what I think about when I consider these past six years. (And who can believe six years have passed already?) So really, I don't know. What else can I say?