Words don't come all that easy for me sometimes. When you're looking at the world from only about 12 inches off the ground, there's a lot you can't see and everything looks different from down here.
Yesterday at dinnertime I took my usual perch on a footstool by the table. Meme and Poppy always bring a tiny plate of dog treats for me to have while they have their dinner. Knowing this, as soon as Meme puts that footstool by the table I hop up because I know sooner or later I'll get my treats. What's so good about my life is most of the time I know what to expect each day from the moment I get up until it's time to plop on the bed with my 'peeps' and sleep safely through the night.So this is the easy stuff, the things we expect at certain times in the day; I get up every morning confident that everything will be just as good as the day before. But Meme says nothing is forever and that became crystal clear 9 years ago this month when the world everyone thought they knew was shattered in mere moments on a beautiful bright sunny morning when the last thing anyone would ever have expected could happen ... did.
Growing up maybe Meme was a little spoiled. It isn't that there was nothing to fear, but the world seemed so much bigger back then. Every once in a while there would be drills called "Duck and Cover" and all the kids dove under their desks at school and covered their heads with their arms. But when she heard "grown ups" talk about the governments they were fearful about, the countries were on the other side of the world. As a child Meme always felt safe at home with her family.
After the Vietnam War was over and when the Berlin Wall came down, people fell into a sort of wistfulness that finally all was well. For Meme it was a joyous time of falling in love, getting married, buying a home, working in a job she loved and meeting new friends. When she turned 50, she decided she wasn't so over the hill after all.
So life was good. And on September 11, 2001, Meme and Poppy were living here in Florida and I was pretty new in their lives. That morning was just like any other except for that brilliant blue sky not just in Boston and New York, but in Washington, Pennsylvania and here in Florida. Another glorious day when all Meme had to worry about was going to have her teeth cleaned.
The TV was on, I was asleep on the bed and Meme and Poppy were getting dressed. And then everything seemed to stop. I could feel it in the air as all the joy was sucked out of the house. They just stood staring at the TV.
In that moment, that day, that second ... all innocence was lost, the playthings got put away, trust in everything they thought they could depend on was gone and I remember Meme said so quietly I could barely hear her ... "Nothing will ever be the same again".Meme is a lot like me and when she feels something deeply, she writes. A month later she wrote something she's never shared before. So I thought maybe her words were better than mine just this one time.
AFTERWARD by Heather Boyd Sandarr
Afterward ...
Strangers became brothers.
Tears fell and would not dry..
Afterward ...
Strangers rescued strangers risking their own lives
Realizing they'd also saved their own.
Strangers on a plane wove their lives as one
halting yet another tragedy
Yet lost their own in the doing.
Afterward it was said that life had changed forever...
That the world would never be the same.
But in so many ways life is exactly the same as before.
It is simply that such an evil
Was beyond anything we’ve ever known or could ever imagine .
This evil has lived with us for many years,
a noxious gas festering its way toward this agonizing day.
It has slithered through our streets brushing against us as it passed.
It has used our minds and hearts and shelters to grow within itself.
It has lived next door to us and passed us on the street.
It has used our schools, enjoyed our land, eaten our food, drunk our wine.
No one saw it smile yet still we gave it space to grow
Because that's who we are.
So life has not changed ... we have changed.
Now we know what we did not know
And now we stand together as one.
We stand for our country, our family, our core, our very soul.
We stand as one with the goal to end evil forever.
Afterward ... they thought they could tear us apart;
They have only drawn us together.
My country is my Family.
I may criticize my brother,
Lash out at my brother, cheat my brother.
I may even hurt my brother,
But no one may attack my brother
And expect that I’ll ever forget.
Buildings can be rebuilt, but lost lives can never be reclaimed.
Afterward...
When we've managed through the agony,
When we've grieved beyond our grief,
When the open wound has healed to a firm resolve to ensure
that no one, certainly no evil such as this,
Can take away our liberty or destroy our country.
Afterward may we come to know
That those who died that day
Did not do so in vain.
It was 9 years ago my Meme wrote this and she tells me that sadly our country is now divided in so many ways. Meme says there are always ebbs and flows to everything.
Though she wrote "they thought they could tear us apart; they have only drawn us together", now it sometimes seems they won after all. Yet she realizes that while we may be divided about where we should go and how we should get there, we are not divided in our resolve to stand together against those who will do us harm. Torn apart we will break; bonded together we will be whole, strong and indestructible.
I confess this is really way too much for me to absorb. I'm just one little dog. But like I say, I'm just twelve inches off the ground so I have a different perspective. For me life is pretty simple. I don't make enemies and I don't look for trouble, but I watch out for my Meme and Poppy and they look out for me.
'Til Next Time ...
Molly
