Remembering September 11

When the misery of September 11th struck I was an office manager for a magazine and was living in Birmingham, Alabama. I recall I arrived to work a few minutes late that morning and when I entered our editorial offices I noticed a large group of our staff huddled in a small conference room watching television.

I don't often remember specific thoughts I had at particular moments in my past but that morning I recalled that I felt a tinge of dread as I, for some odd reason, thought that the President of the United States had been shot. To this day I've no clue as to why I thought that.

There were enough people in the conference room where it would have been uncomfortable for me to try to squeeze in and see what the big deal was all about. So I stood outside the room and watched through a glass pane. I could definitely see that something was up in New York City.

I could see the twin towers and one of them was smoking away. How odd it all looked! I then thought "Oh, man! One of the towers was hit by an airplane! Sad!!!" I wasn't far from the truth. I still didn't realize that it was a terrorist attack. I will never forget the feeling of fear that gripped me when I saw the second plane bury itself into the other building. I knew then that things would never be quite the same in America again. When the buildings crumbled to the ground a part of America fell too. I think we realized that day that America, great a nation as it is, is vulnerable. We felt that morning things that many other people in many other countries feel on a regular basis. I thought all these things that morning.

I thought also of my sister in New York City, where, incidentally, I grew up. People were crying all around me, hugging each other, and editorial work for the magazine was out of the question for that day. I still remember what one of the editors did that morning of 9/11. She was a close friend and writing mentor of mine. She hugged me, crying, and quoted a passage out of the New Testament. It was from the Epistle of St. James and spoke about praying for one another.

"...pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous person can accomplish much."

I knew the passage. At the time I was a divinity school student studying for my graduate degree in theology. I felt pretty helpless that day in terms of ministry. I just listened a lot mainly and didn't offer much in the way of emotional sauve for anyone. People needed to cry. We often run from grief but grief is a part of what it means to be human.

Several years have already passed now since that day, but I remember that day like it was yesterday. A writer friend of mine in Indiana called my office that morning frantic. "Are you okay! Is everything okay with you and your family!!" She was crying.

Well, that's pretty much it for now.