Another Photo-A-Week Page for 2001

Weeks Twenty-five through Twenty-nine

It's now about 3:30AM, September 13, 2001. Two days ago, Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I got up about 10:00AM and checked my e-mail. A few hours earlier I had finished a web page and had received an e-mail saying that I had an error; I had made a mistake in identifying an employer. I had written that someone worked for the INA when in fact they worked for the INS. I corrected it and sent them a note letting them know I’d made the change.

After sending the note I went back to my e-mails...as I subscribe to three photography newsgroups, I always have e-mail…there were ten or fifteen that in the subject line had WTC. WTC. WTC. I opened the first. It told of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. A joke. A macabre trick. A sick hoax. Why would anyone do something like that? The next reported the same. As did the next. I switched on the TV and there it was, a plane flying into the World Trade Center. Surely a mistake, a modern War of the Worlds or Attack From Mars, or whatever that long ago movie or TV program was (Orson Welles, I think). The planes flying into The World Trade Center looked like special effects from some slickly-made, computer-generated movie. But, as we all know, it wasn't a joke, it wasn’t a movie; it had actually happened. I'm in the middle of a break from work; off Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Tuesday and Wednesday I sat before the TV switching from one channel to another. Not sure what I wanted to see, as I knew it was true...America had been attacked. Thousands of people dead. Millions of people effected directly and indirectly by the deaths of those on the planes and in the building...and the deaths of fire fighters and police officers. People waking up all over America...in fact, the world, and worrying whether their loved ones had been killed. And, then the news that there were few people being rescued. Few. Not much hope.

I took a brief break from the TV today. Felt I needed to get away. Spent a few minutes at Barnes & Noble. Sipped a coffee. Wandered around for a few minutes. Didn't want to engage anyone...just wanted to be alone. Back home. Back in front of the TV. Nothing is getting any better. Few people being found. I guess what many are now waiting for is our finding out who did this; and, then the retribution and retaliation. I think all of us somewhere in our being want that. Yes, we want our country to go to another and destroy it, though we all surely know that there will be innocent civilians who will be killed. People just like our people...people who are innocent and have done nothing to anyone. People who are just trying to make it from day to day. People who hold no ill will toward anyone. And, these people will surely die.

Some say that out of any event, regardless of how bad or horrible it is, there can be some good...even if the good is nothing more than realizing that you have personally escaped a tragedy and to do an inventory of sorts about what is important and how fleeting life can be. Appreciate everyday...don't hold grudges or animosities...be kind...harbor no ill thoughts...try to be a decent person...be more understanding of others...be more accepting of others. Try to figure out what's actually important...what actually has value. And so on.

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I've gotten behind in my picture-of-the-week pages. I wanted to do something to distract myself. So, here I am in front of the computer. With no enthusiasm scanned these few prints. Life has to at some time get back to a more normal way…this time it’s not going to happen anytime soon, if ever.



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