Reality

[Dillinger]

There are moments, especially as things begin to return to "normal" (or at least resemble what I remember as normal) that I thankfully forget for a moment what has happened. And then it hits again like a ton of bricks.

Mornings are the worst I guess. I can wake up and it's been pushed to the back of my mind - then something reminds me.

There are times - watching a movie, doing my job, playing with my children - where the world seems to be the way it always was.

I miss my illusion of safety.

It hurts. We all hurt.

I'm thankful for those moments when I can forget and yet, at the same time, I feel guilty that I can forget - even for a short while.

If wishes were... *soft smile* - I wish, I know we all do, that it was just some terrible dream. Some Hollywood blockbuster. The enormity of what has happened and its ramifications seem more then I can bear - more then anyone should have to bear.

Mostly I wish for the world I thought my children would grow up in.

 

[registered "^^"]

Mostly I wish for the world I thought my children would grow up in.

I grew up in the 50's Dill, We wondered when the atom bomb would fall. Hell we even had drills teaching us how to hide under the desk and shade our eyes. Then as I turned 18 a few months before high school graduation I got my draft notice: You have been selected by your friends and neighbors...........etc.etc..

We have been blessed with some rather peaceful times and I, like you wish better for your children and my ten year old son. We can only pray that this latest cycle of senseless violence does not continue for long, and that our children will be allowed to grow up.

 

[Dillinger]

Me too... did the hiding under the desk thing and drills and all that. Not knowing, at the time, how fucking useless and stupid it was.

Somehow - and maybe this is just from a child's perspective - but it didn't seem as serious... seemed almost like a game. And, in retrospect, the threat doesn't seem as real - as scary... but perhaps to the adults back then it was.

I just missed the draft actually - was cancelled a year - or less - before I turned 18.

 

[PacificBlue]

I'm pushing for normalcy in my daily life, if I don't I feel like I will get lost in this. I feel horribly for the families who have lost their loved ones and for those who will suffer years of emotional pain for the images that they have seen.

Two of my best girlfriends are having babies this month. A month for incredible joy and unbearable sorrow all in the same breath.

 

[Cheyenne]

Me too... did the hiding under the desk thing and drills and all that. Not knowing, at the time, how fucking useless and stupid it was.

Me, too. It was called "duck and cover" as I recall.

I grew up with Vietnam being a way of life for as long as I could remember until I was just about out of high school and it finally ended. War seemed "normal." BUT, it wasn't at home.

 

[miles]

I once had an official looking Civil Defense poster which read:

IN CASE OF NUCLEAR ATTACK

Put your head between your legs

And Kiss your ass goodbte

 

[cymbidia]

Me too... did the hiding under the desk thing and drills and all that.

Me, too. Same drills, same fears, same ending of VietNam just before most of the boys i'd gone through school with were going to be called up.

We've been so fortunate to be at peace, relatively speaking, for so long since then.

I'm trying to give this to my 13 year old daughter - my 5 year old son will not remember - as a history lesson, a thing her children will study in school, and a thing we will have grown past by the time she has kids of her own. However, both my kids are very experienced air travellers; if they remember anything about this exceedingly clearly, i'm afraid it's going to be the difference Before and After with regard to the air travel that has always been so commonplace in their lives.

 

[Silverlily]

N CASE OF NUCLEAR ATTACK

Put your head between your legs

And Kiss your ass goodbte

We had that poster when I was stationed in North Dakota. Unfortunately, it wasn't a joke.

Reality has this nasty way of jumping you when you aren't looking. A local radio station announced this morning the one of the hijackers on the plane that struck the Pentagon took flight lessons at a little airfield oh about three lousy miles from my house.

Good lord, was I ever at the gas station at the same time he was? How about the grocery store or McDonald's? Things like that make it harder not to jump at shadows.

 

[Dillinger]

Interesting - some of the things we collectively experienced as children that seem both poignant and ironic in retrospect.