Last Normal Day

There are times when we all remember exactly where we were, but Monday, September 10, 2001 much like any other.  I remember vaguely going to work as usual.  Nothing particularly special happened that day I guess.  I honestly don't remember anything about it.  It was just another Monday, the beginning of what most people thought was going to be another normal week.  We were all going about our business as usual lives.  Kids were back in school.  The days had already begun to grow shorter.  Autumn was not far away.  We had hope.

It was the last normal day.

And then, ten years ago tomorrow everything changed for all Americans forever.  Nothing would ever be the same.  We would find ourselves taking our shoes off at the airport without questioning it.  We would for several months cast a wary eye on any passing jet.  For a time we would wave our flags and greet our neighbors in solidarity.  "Never forget," we all swore!  "Never again!"  We were one.

Time went by and we began to return to a new type of normalcy.  Work, play, life when on.  Politics once again became volatile.  We entered two wars that also became part of our new "normal".  There was no looking back, no returning to the innocence of September 10, 2001.  We no longer felt that we were invulnerable.  Our sense of security was cracked wide open.

*****

Another "last normal day" was November 21, 1963.  I was in junior high school.  It was a Wednesday.  We were all living with what some called a view of Camelot.  A young, vigorous President with a beautiful, regal wife and two young children occupied the White House.  That president, John F Kennedy, proclaimed that the torch had been passed to a new generation.  We believed it had.  We were racing to the moon and all things new and shiny were coming to all those who believed.  

We had hope.

And then on November 22, 1963 the President was assassinated and everything changed.  There was a new normal.  The 1960's saw revolutions and assassinations and riots all mixed with love-ins and flower power.  A few more decades went by and just as we all seemed to settle in, 9/11 happened.

It seems to me there is no business as usual really.  You never know when your whole world will turn upside down.  And it doesn't have to come in the form of a lone assassin or a terrorist attack.  Just get complacent and you will all of a sudden be shook awake.   Its all about staying vigilant and aware.  You can rest in the everlasting arms if all that is holy and know this too shall pass.  But you cannot take "normal" for granted because it just isn't necessarily so.  

Yes, there are times we all remember exactly where we were when something happened....when what was normal ended.  

Never forget, never again.