This entry was posted on September 11, 2008 at 2:08 pm and is filed under politics. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
One Comment on “Today is 9-11. Where were you when you heard the news?”
My ex and I had been planning to get back into playing racquetball, and had reserved a court for that morning. We were woken at 6am by his mother, telling us to turn on the news. We sat in our living room and watched the second tower collapse, watched the stunned journalists, the chaos. Some time went by, we watched in silence. And then I turned to Wayne and said, “Well, we should get going if don’t want to miss our court appt at the gym.” He didn’t argue – we dressed quickly and made our way to the club and played 3 games.
I guess we just couldn’t wrap our brains around it. I had to think about something positive, active, good for me, and playing racquetball was a promise to myself that I was going to keep.
The days that followed were full of shock and fear, and we were glued to the television. We stayed like that for weeks. I had been working on a novel set during World War II for years, and suddenly it was REAL, and I felt terrible guilt. I did not want to know it firsthand. It wasn’t like the 40’s at all – we had no faith in our leader, no uplifting jingles sung by a homely lady trio, and no community scrap drives. We just had our televisions and the sure belief that we would be blown to bits at any moment. We were helpless and alone. We were like the rest of the planet. We welcomed retribution and a savior, any savior…..
![[New+Yorker+9-11+cover+09-08-06.gif]](https://i2.wp.com/1.bp.blogspot.com/_madyzqmHA2o/SMhsbRVRQqI/AAAAAAAABuI/7aFliTrne24/s1600/New%2BYorker%2B9-11%2Bcover%2B09-08-06.gif)
September 11, 2008 at 4:58 pm
My ex and I had been planning to get back into playing racquetball, and had reserved a court for that morning. We were woken at 6am by his mother, telling us to turn on the news. We sat in our living room and watched the second tower collapse, watched the stunned journalists, the chaos. Some time went by, we watched in silence. And then I turned to Wayne and said, “Well, we should get going if don’t want to miss our court appt at the gym.” He didn’t argue – we dressed quickly and made our way to the club and played 3 games.
I guess we just couldn’t wrap our brains around it. I had to think about something positive, active, good for me, and playing racquetball was a promise to myself that I was going to keep.
The days that followed were full of shock and fear, and we were glued to the television. We stayed like that for weeks. I had been working on a novel set during World War II for years, and suddenly it was REAL, and I felt terrible guilt. I did not want to know it firsthand. It wasn’t like the 40’s at all – we had no faith in our leader, no uplifting jingles sung by a homely lady trio, and no community scrap drives. We just had our televisions and the sure belief that we would be blown to bits at any moment. We were helpless and alone. We were like the rest of the planet. We welcomed retribution and a savior, any savior…..