911 Service Today

Free Excerpts From Book About 911 Below

I tend to scan the news headlines with a certain aloofness. Most of the articles seem like repeats of stories I’ve read before–more state budget cuts, more crimes, more people battling to get elected.

But this morning, one headline caught my eye: “911 Service Today.” Each year, when I encounter commemorative stories about the attacks on Ground Zero and the Pentagon, my mind takes the same whirlwind journey.

September 11th. It is September again, isn’t it?

How many years has it been since 911?

(Insert a few seconds of calculation.)

Eleven?! Is it really possible that it’s been ELEVEN years?

But I can still hear the generators rumbling in the background, my mind protests. I can still see the firefighters scaling piles of concrete. Smell the burned, ashy remains of the Trade Towers. Taste the cloudiness of the air around the rubble.

I’m never very conscious of the amount of time that passes because, for me, September 11th didn’t come and go eleven years ago.  It lives on in what I’ve learned and who I’ve become today.

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Over the next few days I’ll be sharing excerpts from my September 11th story. The entire story is available in Part 4 of my book Picking Dandelions: A Search for Eden Among Life’s Weeds. Read the first excerpt from my book about 911 here.