As Alan Jackson puts it in his deceptively simple but extremely powerful song, “Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?”
Me? I was in an SUV, bombing on down to the New Boston post office – listening to Howard Stern on the radio. (Driving back and forth every morning when I go to get the mail is the only time that I get to listen to Stern these days. Why for? Because Nancy HATES Howard. Doesn’t want “that show” on in “her home.” Which is why – in order to keep my significant other happy – I only listen to Stern when I’m making that daily 10 minute drive down into town.)
So when I heard Gary run into the studio and tell Howard that a plane had just flown into the side of the World Trade Center, I thought to myself: “Man, this has got to be a new low for the Stern show. To foist a cruel hoax like this on his huge radio audience … “
Sigh … If only it had been a cruel hoax …
The rest of that morning .. is kind of a blur to me. Like a lot of you, I remember sitting there, staring numbly at the tube. Watching in horror as the towers came crashing down. The phone … It just seemed to ring every five minutes. Friends & relatives constantly checking in. “Are you okay?” Then “Are you watching this?”
Why all the “Are you okay?” calls? Well, at a family gathering that I had attended a week or so before, I had mentioned that I would soon be heading out west to visit my daughter, Alice. And – when I fly to Southern California – I usually fly out of Logan on an early morning flight.
So you see … I’d actually flown on United Airlines Flight 175 (Boston to Los Angeles). American Airlines Flight 11 (BOS to LAX) too. So … to see the very flights that I’d traveled on so often in the past suddenly become these instruments of death … was just kind of mind blowing for me.
I keep wondering what it must have been like to be on those planes. To be sitting there in a window seat. Checking out the scenery. (This time of year, the trees up here in New England are getting their first hints of color. So the view from way up there – particularly on such a beautiful, sunny, clear pre-Autumn day like last September 11th – must have been absolutely amazing.)
Or maybe I would have been paging through the complimentary magazine, trying to find out what the in-flight movie was. Or maybe I would have been looking around the cabin, wondering when the crew was going to get around to serving us breakfast …
Certainly the last thing on my mind would have been “This is going to be my last day on Earth.”
Look, I’m sorry. I know a lot of you came here today, probably looking for some sort of escape from all the 9-11 coverage. I bet you were hoping that JimHillMedia.com would have up some sort of happy story. Something full of inside info about Disney theme park attraction that didn’t get built or a movie that didn’t get made.
Sorry. Not today, kids. I promise that we’ll get back to that sort of stuff tomorrow. But today … Well, all I ask is that you take a moment – one moment – to remember the nearly 3000 folks who aren’t with us any longer.
People who were just getting their day underway last September 11th. Totally unaware that – when they went out the door that morning – that it would be their last.
Look, I’m not going to tell you how to feel. You can feel angry or sad or depressed or overwhelmed. Or any combination of the above. But do take a moment – just a moment – to honor those very ordinary folks (people just like you and me) who aren’t here anymore.
After that … Feel free to go about your day. Revel in the fact that you’re still here. That you’re alive and kicking. That you can still hug your children. That you can still call friends and family members and tell them how important they are, how much you love them. That you can still pet your cat or go get another doughnut.
You see, that’s what 9-11 taught me. Not that there are evil people out and about in the world. Not the world is this big scary place. But – rather – that life is fragile. That you can never really be certain what’s going to happen next. So you should make a point of treasuring every single waking moment that you have here on this planet.
Okay. This ends the heartfelt message portion of today’s column. Now here’s a more practical piece of advice: Try not to OD on all the 9-11 memorial coverage today. If you’re feeling emotionally overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to turn off the tube for a while and go outside for a walk. You’re really not a bad American if you’ve had your fill of sadness. That you need a break from all the solemn ceremonies and earnest anchors.
Okay. That’s it for today. I’m getting off my soapbox now. I promise that – this time tomorrow – that we’ll be back to business as usual here at JimHillMedia.com. The next time you drop by the site, you’ll find even more pointless (but – hopefully?entertaining) crap written by yours truly.