Idealogian

9/11 - A Return to Normalcy

I stood this morning on the corner of Liberty and Nassau, two blocks from where the Twin Towers once stood. I stopped and looked towards the north-west sky, as I had two years ago while I watched ash and flaming wreckage tumble from the side of the World Trade Center's north tower, moments after it had been hit. At 8:46 AM, a moment of silence was observed while what sounded like The Star-Spangled Banner played on some nearby church bells and Tomaso Albinoni's Adagio played through my headphones. And I wondered if I'd be in the same place, doing the same thing, next year.

A few days ago, a New York Times article reported that "nearly one-third of those questioned [in a recent poll] said that their lives have still not returned to normal." "It is as if the populace has stalled in its march toward fully being itself again." I think the pollsters, and authors, are missing the point.

True, it's not normal (as anyone who knows me can tell you) for me to stand on a street corner, staring at the sky, holding back tears. But then neither is it normal for two 110-story towers to crumble to the ground, killing the thousands inside.

It is not normal for people to fear travel on bridges and in tunnels, as the article reports many still do, but neither is it normal for those bridges and tunnels to be the target of terrorist plots.

I was not "being myself" when the snowflakes falling in downtown Manhattan last winter chilled not only my bones but my heart as well, reminding me of the day when little pieces of white ash fell in my hair and down my shirt. But to try to "march on" and wipe such thoughts from my mind would be an affront to the memory of those whose ashes were falling on me, and that isn't me either.

So I think that, since 9/11, we need to change our definition of "normal" and our conception of what it means to be ourselves. At least until (though probably even after) we have sufficiently dealt with those, here and around the world, who would deprive us of our sense of security and dignity. Only then can we hope to truly begin our return to normalcy.