Reflections on 9/11

As I sit at my desk on Tuesday, September 11, my mind wanders to the last 9/11 that occured on a Tuesday, the day that the World Trade Center and Pentagon was attacked.

I was on my second day at a new job... I was the new Communications Specialist on a federal grant called the National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research at the Southwest Educational Development Laboratories. Shortly after I got to work, I was settling into my cubicle just trying to figure out what exactly my role in this position was going to be, my boss came out of his office and quietly said "A plane just hit the World Trade Center."

Talk about a million thoughts racing in my head. In the following days as the news continued to pour in, I found out that the folks I knew in Washtington DC were all safe. That was a bit of a personal relief... but how devastating was this to every person in the world. A friend who was visitng Europe and France was consoled and embraced as she was their link to "America" in the days following... it was an amazing response of a mix compassion for Americans and rage against whomever did this injustice.

Now it's six years later.
I'm not the kind of "wave-the-flag-yee-haw" American, but I have pride. I am all for the things this country was founded on and I try to live my life embracing the melting pot idea.

So.. I sit at my desk (yes I came to work as did all my co-workers) and reflect. I popped in one of my all-time favorite CDs that I haven't listened to for a long while... Darrell Scott's Aloha From Nashville.

While doing some work, the song "Life is Cheap" began...

"She's awakened every morning with her baby down the hall
and when he's cried to sleep, she's staring at the wall.
And in that wall she sees the devil staring out of knotty pine
Though she speaks out loud, he will not get behind.

She's a woman with wounded spirit. She's a woman who loved too much.
Like Mama always said, she's such an easy touch."

Suddenly a meaning that was never intended came through this song (It was recorded in 1997) and it sent chills down my spine.

I guess I'm effected by music as much as many are. As Darrell Scott said when I interviewed him earlier this year:

"Music is universal language. It is frequencies and vibrations that effects me in deep ways I do not understand. I feel them and it resonates and sticks with me. Somewhere in me is all that I have heard, sounds endlessly gathering. "

I transcribed the lyrics above because they don't actually appear anywhere online that I could find.

I did find a link to a little bit of an mp3 though if you care to listen. The chorus is on the link and it's what actually effected me....then I started the song over with a new mindset.
http://www.echotunes.com/mmTHEECHOPLEX/audio/mp3/dscott_lifeischeap.mp3

So... I'm sitting here.. reflecting. Thought I'd share. I don't need a big american flag sticker or a magnet on my car or a day off work to remember... I don't need a political comment or a stance to champion or a people to parade around.

Thanks for reading.