I turn the television on first thing every morning. Never again, will I wait until I hear what is happening in the world from somebody else. September 11th did that to me.
This anniversary is handy because I remember pretty clearly what my life was like ten years ago. I was working hard as a Congressional staffer. I was single, and childless. I didn’t really think too much about mortality, because when you are in your mid-thirties, you think you will live forever.
Plenty of people in their mid-thirties saw their lives snuffed out overnight a decade ago, and if that doesn’t inject some urgency into living each day as it could be your last, nothing will.
I am a decade older and maybe a decade wiser, but I am not sure if that sentiment is widely held about me or about the country. As a country, I’m not sure if America has really learned anything. We can’t figure out how to get our economy started. We can’t figure how to feed the hungry and get the obese to eat a little less. We still aren’t sure if we will accept a little more risk in our life in exchange for more freedom. And the rest of the world baffles us if we even think twice about it, which most of us rarely do.
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