Nine Eleven.

That's how the phrase comes to mind when I think of the date 9/11...... the month and day get spelled out in my brain, giving more importance to the significance of the date. Letters are more important somehow than numbers.... spelling something out gives it more meaning, more presence. I don't much like the trend of using abbreviations and acronyms to get a message across...... habits such as those will kill the English language.

Nine Eleven. 9/11. September 11th. No matter how you write it out, the importance of this date lives on, and will forever change the meaning of this September day. I watched part of the memorial services this morning... they read all of the names... I stood there in front of the little TV in the kitchen with the box of tissues close to me. I didn't know any of those people, but watching the heart-wrenching expressions of the readers as the names were called out.... so very sad. Ten years have passed.... it seems like it's been just ten minutes.

My cousin F in NY eMailed me this morning and told me that the Mayor of NYC decided to 'keep church and state separate' and 'not allow' any sort of prayer at the memorial services. My cousin F was livid, as I'm sure most of NY was....... as for keeping church and state 'separate'--- that fact is contradicted every time someone takes an oath of office on the steps of the Capital--- they're taking that oath while placing a hand on a Bible, not a telephone book. So much for keeping church and state separate. This country was based on a belief in a God... and we all have a right to determine just what kind of 'god' or 'God' we wish to believe or not believe in. So where in the official job description of the Mayor of NY does it say that the Mayor of NYC has the authority to determine that no prayer is allowed at a memorial service?! Give us all a blessed break. Bloomberg, you're an idiot. In my opinion.


This afternoon, we had a birthday lunch here for JD and JS.... both of their birthdays are in September.... one birthday was last week, one birthday is this week..... we invited them both, along with husbands of course, and we all had a birthday lunch today. When I called them up to ask them over, it didn't dawn on me that Sunday was Nine Eleven....... I just said Can you join us for lunch on Sunday? When I looked at the calendar, I was surprised that it was the 11th...... how did it get here so quickly?

So as I prepared foods for lunch this morning, I listened to the names being read..... and life goes on, for the families and friends of those who were lost, and for the rest of us as well. "Those who were lost." Such an odd phrase. The ones who were lost were murdered, plain and simple. And after ten years, it still amazes me that a segment of the human population of this planet can be filled with such hatred, such malice, such intent. Heaven help us all, because they're still out there.

I read a book this weekend by Mattie Stepanek.... he's the little boy who was on the "Oprah" show so many times. Mattie had muscular dystrophy for years... and the end of his life story was not a happy one. When Mattie died, Oprah gave the eulogy at the service. In the short time Mattie was on this earth, he truly grasped the meaning of life and wrote three books of poetry and essays. His writing about Sept. 11th deserves a space all its own..... I will type it out in its own entry, which it so highly deserves.