Redefining Normalcy (October 3, 2001)

At one time, driving down 395 and seeing the Pentagon was as normal as drinking coffee. Now as one drives down the newly reopened, almost sacred stretch of pavement, heads turn and traffic slows to witness the destruction that has occurred. People stop on the median to take pictures and stand with mouths gaping. The country’s lives have been forever altered. The sense of the routine we used to feel has been crushed. Our cocoon has been broken. No longer will people be able to see the United States as completely indestructible.  A cloud has darkened our world and will forever be remembered in our hearts. The scene, which repeatedly plays in all of our minds, will be playing forever. We will never be able to return to the "normal" we once knew and loved. 

Does this scare us? Of course we are afraid. Old eclectic topics of conversation seem so minor now. The rise and fall of the stock market, a presidential election, the prices of gas, or the type of cereal we ate for breakfast. Never did we dream that we, the United States of America would ever be attacked. Never did we conceive of an affront to our country so large that it would impact our daily lives and routines. On September 12, there was a hush in the air and only one topic of conversation to be heard. Driving down each street, the red, the white and the blue waved in the sunshine. How could such a beautiful day produce such a travesty? How could a handful of people take it upon themselves to destroy our sense of well being? Everything that has been done prior to this horrific event seems now to be trivial and frivolous. The future has taken a pivotal change and a devastating blow on all lives; from those in the DC area and New York, to places around the country, not to mention the world. 

But perhaps instead of mourning the loss of our precious normalcy, we simply need to redefine it. Instead of steeping in depression, allowing it to fester and over take our lives, we need to pick ourselves out of the dust from the Pentagon's debris and the Trade Tower’s remains, and brush off. The world may seem darkened, and a little more intimidating. Yet because we need to move on, does it mean we will or could ever forget? Quite the contrary, the memory allows us to grow, as a people, as a nation. Never has there been so much patriotism, never has there been so much respect, and never has there been so much unity behind the president.

The airlines have tightened security, our leaders have been awakened to the possibility of being attacked, and we the people are so much more grateful for freedom, something we once took for granted. Saying the pledge of allegiance has never meant so much. And tomorrow the sun will rise, and the birds will fly. So like the land we live on, this land we have learned to respect and cherish, we will slowly return to normal. Not our naïve, egocentric, carefree normalcy, but a more worldly, informed and aware sense of the norm.