My dogs don't know who died today.
Nothing, no one, ever, can find any rationale for such senseless and horrific
loss of life, or assault on the sanctity of our freedoms and beliefs. This
tragedy underscores our vulnerability and trust in the goodness of humankind;
good things, were it not for the devastation such innocence led to.
My dogs don't know who died today.
They eat their meals and wag their tales.
Over the next few hours, days and months, we all will waffle back and forth,
trying to strike a balance between our collective need to mourn our losses
and express our grief, and to maintain some sense of normalcy and routine.
And we must find a way to deal with the grim reality of how are lives will be
forever changed. We must give ourselves permission to cope as we feel moved,
and the space as needed to still speak of the warm sun or what we ate for
breakfast.
My dogs don't know who died today.
They lift my spirits, even as they do not know they do.
The refrain we shall hear forever, HOW could this happen? How COULD this
happen? How could this HAPPEN? will play an endless loop in many of our
minds, driving some of us mad if we let it. It is important to have faith in
the experts to do their jobs from this day forward, and I, for one, am glad I
have not heard too much wailing about the failings of those entrusted to
protect us. And unlike the Back to the Future movies, we cannot go back and
redo the past.
My dogs don't know who died today.
They keep me grounded in a good reality.
I am so grateful for the trained search and rescue workers and their dogs,
and the various intelligence personnel who will be involved in hunting down
the
perpetrators and putting an end to worldwide terrorism. Such noble pursuits
are not within the realm of the vast numbers of folks who make up the fabric
of our country. For us, it remains our responsibility to keep that fabric
solid,
to band together with a renewed sense of closeness and solidarity. It is time
to put aside our petty differences, and work together for a new, albeit very
different world.
My dogs don't know who died today.
I'm glad. I love them anyway.
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My heart goes out to those in NYC, PA, and Washington, DC, whose lives were
more directly devastated by this wanton destruction. My family and I are so
grateful and relieved that our mom is ok. She is 83, and lives within a
stone's throw of the WTC. We spent several harrowing hours being unable to
contact her, as phone circuits were (and still are) down in her area. She
is very active, and Tuesday was an unusual day in that she had no
appointments, and wasn't gallivanting around the City as she usually is.
Finally, to my great relief, I received the following email from her around
2:00 in the afternoon, before all phone and Internet service went out, which
I would like to share with the list:
Hi Mad: I have not been able to get through to you either. Although, I have
been able to receive calls from several people. I had the radio on and was
just getting out of bed when I heard an explosion. Then the radio announcer
said there was an explosion at the WTC. I went out to my terrace to see what
was going on and saw one of the WTC building upper third of building on fire
with lots of smoke. I called Eleanor and asked her if she wanted to join me
on the terrace. The horror of it and what followed did not get to me yet. I
took some pictures and as I looked through my camera the second building
caught fire...or rather was struck by a second plane. Eleanor and I just
hugged each other crying, "Oh my God, oh my God! About twenty minutes after
that this tower just folded up in flames and collapsed before my eyes. And
then about twenty minutes later the first building collapsed. It was so
unreal. Like a horror movie. After the last building collapsed, everything
is covered with ash... looks like a snow storm. I am ok, but the horror of
what I witnessed will haunt me forever.
Talk to you later.
Love Mom
Maddy Mason,
Hudson Valley, NY
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