Thursday, September 11, 2003
Where Were You?
Alan Jackson sang those words shortly after 9/11... "Where were you when the world stopped turning...?" Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. People still talk about what they were doing when Kennedy was shot (I was toddling around the house, I assume... I was less than two years old).
Michael called me from the station and said "turn on any major network." After a few minutes of watching in horror, I went to Starbucks and met up with Kim where we sat in shock. Kim lived in Oklahoma City when the Alfred P. Murrah building was bombed, so she was quite upset as she recounted the story to me. As the stories of the twin towers, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania unfolded, we clung to our coffee cups and prayed.
Then, a woman came rushing in, visibly shaken. She was crying and hoping to find some help inside Starbucks. She approached a table of men, and they assumed she was upset about the horrific events. As it turned out, she had hit a bird on the highway, and it was stuck in the grill of her car. She needed a man to come out and remove it. One of the men gladly went outside to assist her... after all, it was a somber morning, and being neighborly was the right thing to do.
Minutes later, the man returned, hardly able to contain his laughter. How dare he? You can't laugh at such a time as this! However, when he explained himself, I had to say to myself, "lips, don't unpurse." Apparently, the bird was stuck beyond any hope of a safe rescue. He pulled and jiggled and pushed and prodded... to no avail. So he yanked as hard as he could. Result? Decapitated bird.
That poor man... can you hear him now?
"Where were you? What were you doing?"
"Beheading a bird at Starbucks."
I'm not trying to be flippant. Michael said that evening, "Our lives our changed forever. Things will never be the same." But that bird showed me that life, indeed, does go on... well, except for him. And our lives, in reality, have not changed all that much. (Except Michael has to take his shoes off in the airport). We still have coffee to drink, we still have friends to drink it with and, even in the midst of despair, we can find something to smile about. Poor bird.
Alan Jackson sang those words shortly after 9/11... "Where were you when the world stopped turning...?" Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. People still talk about what they were doing when Kennedy was shot (I was toddling around the house, I assume... I was less than two years old).
Michael called me from the station and said "turn on any major network." After a few minutes of watching in horror, I went to Starbucks and met up with Kim where we sat in shock. Kim lived in Oklahoma City when the Alfred P. Murrah building was bombed, so she was quite upset as she recounted the story to me. As the stories of the twin towers, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania unfolded, we clung to our coffee cups and prayed.
Then, a woman came rushing in, visibly shaken. She was crying and hoping to find some help inside Starbucks. She approached a table of men, and they assumed she was upset about the horrific events. As it turned out, she had hit a bird on the highway, and it was stuck in the grill of her car. She needed a man to come out and remove it. One of the men gladly went outside to assist her... after all, it was a somber morning, and being neighborly was the right thing to do.
Minutes later, the man returned, hardly able to contain his laughter. How dare he? You can't laugh at such a time as this! However, when he explained himself, I had to say to myself, "lips, don't unpurse." Apparently, the bird was stuck beyond any hope of a safe rescue. He pulled and jiggled and pushed and prodded... to no avail. So he yanked as hard as he could. Result? Decapitated bird.
That poor man... can you hear him now?
"Where were you? What were you doing?"
"Beheading a bird at Starbucks."
I'm not trying to be flippant. Michael said that evening, "Our lives our changed forever. Things will never be the same." But that bird showed me that life, indeed, does go on... well, except for him. And our lives, in reality, have not changed all that much. (Except Michael has to take his shoes off in the airport). We still have coffee to drink, we still have friends to drink it with and, even in the midst of despair, we can find something to smile about. Poor bird.
