Ten Years Ago Today

My son Michael had just been born, eight days earlier. He was home, and I was back to work. The previous evening I worked an overnight shift, and was sleeping when my wife came in and mentioned something about towers falling in NY. In a groggy stupor I acknowledged that she had spoken, rolled over, and went back to sleep.
An hour or so later I padded into the kitchen, hoping to find some brunch. My Mom (in Florida to help with the baby) said to me “You remember when you went up to the top of the twin towers?”
“Yes,” I responded, not making the connection.
“Well, you’ll never do that again.” She indicated the TV.
All thoughts of food were gone as I watched the videos replay, over and over again, of airplanes crashing into buildings, of people falling to their deaths, of people screaming as the tallest skyscrapers in NY plunged to the ground like sand-castles in the tide.
The conversation I am seeing in the media–both here in Brazil and in the US–involves the question “how did the events of September 11th change you?”.
I’m not sure it changed me all that much. It did confirm some things I already knew, such as…
1) Men are sinners.
2) Religious men are just as sinful as non-religious men.
3) God is sovereign.
4) God’s sovereignty is most evident in the midst of great tragedy.
5) Americans have a tremendous capacity for unity.
6) American’s tremendous capacity for unity is exceeded only by it’s tremendous capacity for political demagoguery.
7) Islam’s version of a hero is one who flies a plane into a building to kill thousands of people.
8) America’s version of a hero is one who flies a plane into the ground to save thousands of people.
9) I rather prefer America’s version of a hero.
10) The world’s greatest Hero allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross to save Americans and Arabs alike.
And those are my thoughts on the tenth anniversary of September 11th.