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A look back to 2001.

Four days after 9/11, I felt the need to address my public diary with this entry.  I apologize for some of the melodramatic bits, but let’s all agree that most of us still weren’t right in the head after this tragedy.  Some of the sentiment still rings true:  Sit back in your easy chair but not all the way back.

“31”

When I turned 31 I didn’t think I would be packing an old army field pack with rations in case of a third world war.

But I am.

A small tremor of earth among common California ground faults was mere child’s play compared to the live human bomb that wasted the heart and soul of Manhattan, New York.

Few escaped. The pictures prove. The world is full of evil and it does touch free soil.

For so long we have guarded our shores. Taken freedom for granted and have become comfortable with the ability to go, say, feel, what and where we want or feel.

On edge and pushed forward to the front of our easy chairs, the American flag raises yet again to prove that though wounded we lick and lick to heal.

We are not dead. We will move on. But our innocence is gone.

And freedom has become more expensive.

The next generation will never know how easy it was to move from place to place. Or to talk about things that would not draw attention from authorities. Indeed the freedom of speech has become the most expensive asset of our daily lives.

Over 5000 portions of my soul and humanity have disappeared September 11, 2001.

They will never come back and I will always feel that hole.

Revenge, hate, and anger will not replace those missing pieces.

No matter how much I want to wrap my hands around the throat of those would empty my soul, I must reveal that they are the ones who have no pieces to their soul at all and they are empty.

EMPTY

I thank God that all of you in my close circle of friends and family are safe and sound.

Stay strong and stay on the edge of your easy chair, not all the way back.